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Informal Interactive hearings of the UN General Assembly with non-governmental organizations, civil society organizations and private sector on: International Migration and Development, presentation made by the ICMC.

Statement of the International Catholic Migration Commission to the Informal Interactive Hearings of the General Assembly with Non-Governmental Organizations, Civil Society Organizations and the Private Sector on International Migration and Development

United Nations Headquarters, New York July 12, 2006

Introduction: Rights are not only legal commitments, they are practical.

Our proposition is simply that rights are practical as well as proper-not the "opposite" of practical; that migration and development work best when basic human rights are respected.

In fact, rights solve problems.

As an organization of the Catholic Church, working with migrants worldwide regardless of faith, race or nationality, we would mention 5 human rights especially important to migration:

• the right to life;
  
• the right to work, and to be paid a fair wage;
  
• the right to movement, including out of and back to one's own country;
  
• the right to stay in one's own country-closely related to the right to development;
  
• and we would emphasize, especially here: the right to participate actively in decisions that affect one's life, family and community.

These rights are not just central to migration, they solve problems, and are the key to coherence.

Practical examples

We agree with the Global Commission on International Migration that:

• Rights reduce the need for migration in the first place. Many people migrate-and often are forced to migrate-because human rights are not respected in their own countries.
  
• Rights decrease the desperation that exposes so many millions of men, women and children to smuggling and human trafficking.
  
• Rights reduce irregular migration by offering-and enforcing-legal ways to migrate and work that correspond to international and individual needs. This is turn decreases the pressure migrants can feel to misuse asylum processes.
  
• Enforcement of rights reduces opportunities for shadow markets based on hidden workers and off-the-books enterprises by decreasing the incentive for employers to seek and exploit workers who have no rights or are afraid to assert them.
  
• Basic rights decrease the division of nations into communities of legal and illegal residents.

A respect for rights also:

• increases alternatives to permanent migration with sensible, flexible and legal options for temporary and circular migration;
  
• increases the extraordinary matchmaking potential of labor markets and laborers;
  
• increases national security, and pay-in to social security and tax systems in countries of employment;
  
• improves and increases returns of people, skills and capital to countries of origin; and
  
• enables migrants to contribute in every way to the countries and communities they live in and come from, as full human beings.

Every State in this chamber has signed at least one of the 7 core UN human rights treaties, and most have signed many of them. We applaud in particular the 34 countries that have ratified the Migrant Workers Convention and carry the message of our Popes and Church, urging the rest of the member states to ratify it.

All seven of the treaties describe fundamental rights that apply to migrants, whether forced or voluntary, with or without papers.

And these rights are the bridge between migration and development.

Special attention to 3 rights.

3 parts of that bridge need iron support:

• First, we are most concerned about the right of migrants to themselves participate directly in the discussions and decision-making that affect them. In fact, we recommend the formal and immediate creation of a representative body of migrants to participate in this High Level Dialogue and its follow-up.
  
• Second, migrants are not just economic entities or units of labor. We are human beings, with families, with social natures, roles, contributions to make and rights. We must beware purely economic or utilitarian approaches to human beings.
  
• Finally, in all the talk about migrant labor, we must never forget those who need special protection, who might not be able to work, or whose work has even hurt them, especially refugees, victims of trafficking, internally displaced persons and other forced migrants. There can never be detraction, retreat, zero-sum or subordinating of those who need protection in favour of those who don't.

Close: Rights = Bridge between Migration & Development

The High Level Dialogue is a moment of choice: an opportunity to choose the path from chaos to coherence. On that path, human rights is the bridge between migration and development. We are ready to build that bridge with you.

Thank you.