Several dozen countries and NGOs pledged on Friday in a declaration to better defend human rights and improve the treatment of migrants, who are the subject of a Global Compact adopted in 2018 that has registered little progress so far.
This declaration was adopted at the end of a forum organized this week in New York to evaluate the progress of this international agreement.
It highlights the determination of its participants to “strengthen cooperation on international migration in all its dimensions, to discuss and share the progress of the implementation of all aspects of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration.”
During a press conference, the president of the General Assembly of United NationsAbdulla Shahid, recalled that there are more than 281 million migrants on the planet: 3.6% of the world population.
It is “the responsibility of the international community to ensure that the human rights of all the people involved are respected and protected,” he stressed.
The Global Compact for Migration was ratified in 2018 by more than 150 countries.
But for four years “there have not been enough changes in policies and practices to guarantee safe and dignified migration,” the president of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Franceso Rocca, summed up on Monday. .
Non-binding, the pact gathers a series of principles – defense of human rights, of children, recognition of national sovereignty, etc. – and lists different cooperation options. It militates against arbitrary arrests, which it authorizes only as a last resort.
