Contributed by Sumitha Shaanthinni Kishna, Assistant Director, Bar Council Malaysia; and photos by Satha Selvan Subramaniam, Senior Administrative Assistant, Bar Council Malaysia
The regional training commenced with Gopal Siwakoti, Immediate Past Chairperson and Steering Committee Member, Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Network (“APRRN”) and Tatcee Macabuag, Programme Coordinator, Migrant Forum in Asia (“MFA”) delivering the opening address and facilitating the introduction of the participants on behalf of the organising partners and hosts of the event.
The participants were divided into groups equally represented by migrants’ rights advocates and refugees’ rights advocates (with seasoned and new advocates); migrant community leaders and community service providers.
In the first session for the day on “Migrants Rights in International Human Rights Framework”, Tatcee facilitated group discussions for the participants to identify the various issues and challenges faced by migrants. Each group reported back on their findings.
Tatcee then commenced her presentation with statistics, wherein there are 232 million international migrants around the world, 105 million persons work in a country other than their country of birth, 90% of international migrants are workers and their families and they primarily migrate to seek employment. A total of 48% of international migrants are women who are migrating for work and 42% of international migrants in Asia are women.
Tatcee stated that the right to move is spelt out in Article 13 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:
1. Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each State.2. Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.
Her presentation moved on to the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families which discusses, inter alia, the following:
(1) Standards for the treatment, welfare and rights of migrant workers and families of migrants;(2) Rights of both documented and undocumented migrant workers;(3) Extends the concept of “equality of treatment” by calling for migrants and families who are non–nationals to have equal treatment with nationals in certain situations;(4) Seeks to establish minimum standards of protection on legal, political, economic, civil social and cultural rights for migrant workers and members of their families which are universally acknowledged;(5) Applies to the entire migration process: pre–departure, transit, on–site, return and reintegration; and(6) Affirms state responsibility in protecting migrant workers and their families without distinction of any kind such as sex; race; colour; language; religion or conviction; political or other opinion; national, ethnic or social origin; nationality; age; economic position; property; marital status; birth; or other status.
Asian countries that have ratified the Convention are the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Bangladesh and Timor Leste while Cambodia is signatory to the Convention.
Tatcee went through the various Articles of the Convention before ending her presentation.
1 The International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families is a United Nations (“UN”) multilateral treaty governing the protection of migrant workers and families. Signed on 18 Dec 1990, it entered into force on 1 July 2003 after the threshold of 20 ratifying States was reached in March 2003. The Committee on Migrant Workers (“CMW”) monitors implementation of the Convention, and is one of the seven UN–linked human rights treaty bodies.