International
Migrants Day is highlighted annually on 18 December.
On December
4, 2000, the United Nations General Assembly, taking into account the large and
increasing number of migrants in the world, proclaimed December 18 as
International Migrants Day. On that day, a decade earlier, the assembly adopted
the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant
Workers and Members of Their Families. Earlier celebrations of the day can be
traced back to 1997 when some Asian migrant organizations marked December 18 as
the day to recognize the rights, protection, and respect for migrants.
Globalization, together with
advances in communications and transportation, has greatly increased the number
of people who have the desire and the capacity to move to other places.
Migration has created challenges
and opportunities for societies throughout the world. It also has served to
underscore the clear linkage between migration and development, as well as the
opportunities it provides for co-development, that is, the concerted
improvement of economic and social conditions at both the origin and the destination.
The United Nations is actively
playing a catalyst role in this area, with the aim of creating more dialogues
and interactions within countries and regions, as well as propelling experience
exchange and collaboration opportunities.
On
September 19, 2016, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a set of
commitments during its first ever summit on large movements of refugees and migrants
to enhance the protection of refugees and migrants. These commitments are known
as the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants (NY
Declaration). The NY Declaration represents a commitment by Member
States to strengthen and enhance mechanisms to protect people on the move. It
paves the way for the adoption of two new global compacts in 2018: the global
compact on refugees and the global compact for safe, orderly and regular
migration.
The UN secretary-general Ban
Ki-moon said, "On
this International Migrants Day, I call on the international community to act
on the global compact on safe, regular and orderly migration as an important
contribution to building a world of peace, prosperity, dignity and opportunity
for all."
MARTINA NICOLLS is an international
aid and development consultant, and the author of:- The Shortness of
Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet
(2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).
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