2 January 2019: The Permanent Representatives of Bangladesh and Spain will lead consultations to determine the modalities and organizational aspects of the International Migration Review Forum, which is established in the Global Compact on Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration. The Forum is conceived as a “repurposing” of a prior mechanism, the High-level Dialogue on International Migration and Development, and will hold its first session in 2022.

The Global Compact was adopted at an intergovernmental conference in Marrakech, Morocco, in December 2018, following an 18-month consultation process called for in the ‘New York Declaration’ on migration and refugees.

Like the High-level Dialogue, the Review Forum will take place every four years. In alternating years, beginning in 2020, sub-regional, regional and cross-regional processes, platforms and organizations, including the UN regional economic commissions or regional consultative processes, are invited to review the implementation of the Global Compact, in order to inform each edition of the International Migration Review Forum. In addition, the Global Forum on Migration and Development is invited to “provide a space for annual informal exchange on the implementation” of the Compact, and to report “findings, best practices and innovative approaches” to the Forum.

The Global Compact states that the Forum will be “the primary intergovernmental global platform” for discussing progress on implementation of the Compact, “including as it relates to the 2030 Agenda.” Each edition of the Forum will result in an intergovernmentally agreed ‘Progress Declaration,’ the Compact specifies, and this will inform the UN High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF). Per the Compact, the Review Forum will have “the participation of all relevant stakeholders.”

On 21 December 2018, UN General Assembly (UNGA) President Maria Fernanda Espinosa Garces announced the appointment of Agustín Santor Maraver (Spain) and Masud Bin Momen (Bangladesh) as co-facilitators for the consultations. She noted that modalities must be finalized by 31 July 2019, in order to support implementation of the Compact.

Also on migration, the UNGA President will hold a high-level debate on international migration and development, mandated in UNGA resolution 73/241, on 27 February 2019. The debate is expected to inform the HLPF’s review of migration-related Goals and targets of the 2030 Agenda, and is taking place “in lieu of the 2019 High-level Dialogue.” The meeting was announced on 2 January 2019. [Co-facilitators’ appointment] [UNGA President’s letter announcing debate]