On 25-26 September 2017, the Special Representative of the Secretary General on Migration and Refugees, Tomáš Boček, participated in the Prague conference “Immigration Detention of Children: Coming to a Close?” hosted by the Czech Chairmanship of the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers. In the concluding remarks, the Director General of Human Rights and Rule of Law of the Council of Europe, Christos Giakoumopoulos said that the cost of alternatives to detention is much lower than that of migration detention and that alternatives are less dangerous than detention, for the children themselves and for our societies. The Special Representative stressed the need for an alliance of actors that will push for change, including government leaders, parliamentarians engaging in campaigns like that of PACE, lawyers prepared to initiate strategic litigation before the European Court of Human Rights, committed NGOs, and, most importantly, state officials, and civil servants who are convinced themselves of the need to limit the migration detention of children.
On 11 October 2017 in Strasbourg, on the sidelines of the session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the Special Representative supported the European Network on Statelessness campaign event #LockedInLimbo on protecting stateless persons from arbitrary detention.
On 18 October 2017 in Geneva, the Special Representative will participate in a panel in the context of the third thematic discussion on the Global Compact for refugees. The subject of the discussion is “meeting needs and supporting communities”. He will address the issue of promoting social inclusion.
On 26 October 2017 in Warsaw, the Special Representative will deliver a keynote speech at the OSCE/ODHIR expert round table on local government’s role in migrant integration.
On 27 October 2017 in Vienna, Ambassador Boček will attend a meeting of the Council of Europe/OSCE Coordination Group, where a joint report on progress in cooperation in the fight against trafficking in human beings is going to be discussed.