The Report:

Segment 1: Promoting a comprehensive rights-based approach to international migration, and ensuring respect for and protection of the human rights of all migrants and their families.

Segments 2 & 3: International migration and development - challenges for social and economic policies in sending and receiving countries.

Segment 4: Policy responses - Promoting the building of partnerships and capacity-building and the sharing of best practices at all levels, including the bilateral and regional levels, for the benefit of countries and migrants alike.

Some Responses:

Segment 1 received the largest number of responses with many of them revolving around the need to promote a comprehensive rights-based approach to international migration that ensures respect for and protection of the human rights of all migrants and their families, with a number expressing concern that this was not sufficiently addressed in the Secretary-General's report:
We are cautious that the report moves too quickly into the positive potential of migration [Paragraph 5] at the risk of discounting the human and social cost of migration. We advise that greater overall attention be given to the root cause of so much migration today as well as to the reality that many migrants today continue to remain on the margins of societies, both in their home countries and in their host countries with no effective social, economic or political participation. To ignore these issues is to ignore the human suffering of so many of our brothers and sisters who are mired in the poverty and social isolation that the global community, through the MDG [Millennium Development Goals] commitment, is seeking to alleviate. These links require urgent clarification and attention.

We are concerned that the report does not seem to balance the economic dimension with an equivalent emphasis on the people-centered, social dimensions of development. It seems that market forces are presumed to produce desired improvements in living standards for both ends of the migration chain. We believe that an effective consideration of international migration must be clearly embedded in the three principles of Copenhagen, universal employment, social inclusion and poverty eradication.

To read all the responses, click here.