Council of Europe

The Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families today held a Day of General Discussion on the role of migration statistics for treaty reporting and migration policies, with contributions from a panel of experts on the subject, followed by a dialogue.

Abdelhamid El Jamri, Committee Chairperson, said in its work the Committee saw the limitations of existing statistical data on migration and systematically encouraged States parties to better understand the situation of migrants in their country through the collection and analysis of statistical data, which they should use to develop public policies and programmes to better help migrants enjoy their human rights. However, in most cases the absence of data meant that public policies failed to meet the needs of beneficiaries. He reminded the meeting of the risk of forgetting the people behind the statistics, and said he hoped the discussion would centre upon the dignity and the rights of migrant workers. […]

The Committee on Enforced Disappearances closed its fourth session this afternoon, adopting its annual report to the General Assembly and agreeing its concluding observations and recommendations on the initial report of France.

At the closing meeting Emmanuel Decaux, Chairperson of the Committee, said that today’s meeting marked the end of a two-year cycle; after a development phase the Committee had entered a phase of effective implementation of the Convention, following its examination of the first two initial reports during the session. He said that a highlight of the session was the meeting with the two co-facilitators on the treaty-body strengthening process, in accordance with resolution 66/254 of the General Assembly. Mr. Decaux emphasized that the Committee would very soon reach its limits and would require increased resources. […]

The Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families today completed its consideration of the second periodic report of Azerbaijan on its implementation of the provisions of the International Convention on the Protection of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families.

Presenting the report Parviz Musayev, Deputy Chief of the State Migration Service of Azerbaijan, said the political and economic crisis of the early 1980s and 1990s resulted in the mass migration of citizens out of Azerbaijan to other countries such as Russia, Turkey, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, Germany and Belarus. In recent years rapid socio-economic development in Azerbaijan had resulted in citizens returning to the homeland and an influx of foreign workers to Azerbaijan, encouraged by the low unemployment rate. Azerbaijan regretted it was not able to apply all provisions of the Convention in the entire territory as 20 per cent of the country had long been occupied by Armenia. Azerbaijan acknowledged its problems but remained committed to achieving full implementation of the Convention.

Committee Experts asked the delegation about Azerbaijan’s draft new Migration Code, the rights of migrant workers, bilateral agreements on migration with neighbouring countries, actions to tackle trafficking in persons including sexual exploitation and forced labour, expulsion measures, and about new systems to deal with undocumented migrants. […]

The Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families this morning opened its eighteenth session, during which it will review the reports of Azerbaijan, Bolivia and Colombia on how they are fulfilling their obligations under the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families. During the meeting the Committee heard an address from Simon Walker, Chief of the Civil, Political, Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Section, Human Rights Treaties Division, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. It also adopted its agenda, and heard from a non-governmental organization on Colombia and the Office of the Ombudsman of Azerbaijan.

In his address, Mr. Walker updated the Committee on events and interventions relevant to its work including activities undertaken for United Nations International Migrants Day; a statement issued expressing outrage at the beheading of Rizana Nafeek, a national of Sri Lanka and a domestic worker in Saudi Arabia, on 9 January 2013; recommendations made to Greece and the European Union on the plight of the growing number of irregular migrants trapped in Greece on their way to other European Union destinations; and the rights of children in the context of international migration. Mr. Walker also spoke about anticipated budgetary cuts and how they would affect the Committee’s work, and the treaty body strengthening process.

Abdelhamid El Jamri, Committee Chairperson, said to date 46 United Nations Member States had signed the Convention, of which 17 States had signed but not yet ratified it. There were 19 overdue reports. He updated the Committee on his intercessional activities, and outlined the programme of work for the session, which included consideration of three periodic reports and adoption of the annual report, a new General Comment, and lists of issues for five countries. There would also be a general debate on statistics, which were so important in the presentation of periodic reports and in migration policies. […]

The eighteenth session of the Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families will meet at the Palais Wilson in Geneva from 15 to 26 April 2013 to review the implementation by Azerbaijan, Bolivia and Colombia of the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families, and make recommendations to these countries.

The Committee will open its session on Monday, 15 April at 10 a.m., when it will hear from a representative of the Secretary-General. It will also adopt its agenda and programme of work and discuss activities to promote the Convention.

In the afternoon, the Committee will start the consideration of the second periodic report of Colombia, which will conclude on Tuesday, 16 April at 1 p.m. The Committee will take up the second periodic report of Bolivia on Tuesday, 17 April, in the afternoon, to be concluded on Wednesday, 17 April at 1 p.m. The Committee will consider the second periodic report of Azerbaijan on Wednesday, 17 April, in the afternoon, to be concluded on Thursday, 18 April at 1 p.m.

The Committee will also establish lists of issues for Burkina Faso and Morocco on their initial reports, which will be considered at a future session of the Committee. In addition, under its simplified reporting procedure, the Committee will also establish lists of issues prior to reporting for Belize, Ghana, Sri Lanka and Uganda. Under this procedure, the lists of issues and the replies by the State parties thereto constitute the report of the State party without the State party having to submit a report under the traditional reporting procedure. The simplified procedure not only reduces the administrative burden on States that are subject to numerous reporting requirements but also leads to a more focused discussion with State parties on priority concerns. […]