From Promises to Practice: Towards the Effective Implementation of the Global Compact for Migration

This policy brief summarizes the key themes and recommendations that emerged from a migration policy roundtable held in Geneva in November 2022, six months after the International Migration Review Forum (IMRF) adopted the Progress Declaration, whereby Member States reaffirmed their commitment to the principles underpinning the Global Compact for Migration (GCM), but also acknowledged that the implementation process had been slower than hoped, and uneven in many areas.

Discussions focused on four cross-cutting and interdependent guiding principles underpinning the GCM:

1. Respecting, protecting, and fullfilling the human rights of all migrants (regardless of their migrant status, across all stages of the migration cycle);
2. Eliminating all forms of discrimination (including racism, xenophobia, and intolerance) against migrants and their families;
3. Implementing a ‘whole-of-government’ approach – to ensure horizontal and vertical policy coherence (across all sectors and levels of government); and
4. Implementing a ‘whole-of-society’ approach to address migration in all its dimensions.

This policy brief proposes several key recommendations:

• Member States must ensure effective respect, protection, and fulfilment of migrants’ human rights. Supportive measures include integrating actors in the migration space with the United Nations human rights system and ensuring migrants understand their rights.
• Efforts to eliminate all forms of discrimination should be reflected in national plans; and national mechanisms should be initiated to undertake intersectional racial justice analyses of migration policies.
• A whole-of-government approach is needed to move migration policymaking beyond the security space to include other State actors – through knowledge sharing, capacity strengthening, and more dialogue across all levels of government.
• Effective implementation of the Global Compact for Migration (GCM) requires a ‘bottom-up’ approach that facilitates the active engagement and participation of all actors in society, including migrants and civil society organizations (CSOs).

Access 'From Promises to Practice: Towards the Effective Implementation of the Global Compact for Migration' here.