UN Member States reached consensus on modalities for intergovernmental negotiations leading to the adoption of the global compact for safe, orderly and regular migration at an intergovernmental conference in 2018.
The final draft on modalities will be brought to the UNGA for adoption once its programme budget implications have been reviewed.
30 January 2017: The co-facilitators of the modalities for the adoption of the global compact for safe, orderly and regular migration announced that UN Member States have reached consensus on modalities for intergovernmental negotiations. The negotiations are expected to result in the adoption of the global compact for safe, orderly and regular migration at an intergovernmental conference on international migration in 2018.
Co-facilitators Jürg Lauber, Permanent Representative of Switzerland, and Juan José Gómez Camacho, Permanent Representative of Mexico, circulated a final draft resolution on the modalities on 26 January 2017 under silence procedure. The text was developed through consultations that began with an elements paper issued on 23 November 2016, and lasted until 26 January 2017.
According to the agreed resolution: the conference will take place at UN Headquarters in New York, US, immediately prior to the opening of the general debate of the 73rd session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) “unless otherwise agreed;” and outcomes will include an intergovernmentally negotiated and agreed global compact for safe, orderly and regular migration, summaries of the plenary meetings and other deliberations of the conference, and possible other components such as actionable commitments, means of implementation and a framework for follow-up and review of implementation. Member States will decide on additional modalities for the conference by January 2018, based on a note to be prepared by the UN Secretary-General.
The resolution outlines three phases for the preparatory process, beginning with a series of informal thematic sessions held from April-November 2017.
On preparations for the Conference, the resolution outlines three phases: Phase I – Consultations (April-November 2017), consisting of a series of informal thematic sessions which are specified in the text; Phase II – Stocktaking (November 2017-January 2018), including a three-day preparatory meeting in Mexico in late November 2017, which will inform the basis of the zero draft of the global compact; and Phase III – Intergovernmental Negotiations (February-July 2018), with the zero draft being prepared by the co-facilitators. The schedule of intergovernmental negotiations is outlined as follows: three days in February 2018, four days in March 2018, four days in April 2018, five days in May 2018, five days in June 2018, and five days in July 2018. Negotiations will take place at UN Headquarters in New York. In addition, between April 2017 and June 2018, the UNGA President is requested to organize four days of informal interactive multi-stakeholder hearings with representatives of NGOs, civil society organizations, academic institutions, parliaments, diasporas, migrants, migrant organizations and the private sector.
The intergovernmental negotiations will be led by two co-facilitators appointed by the UNGA President, and the co-facilitators are mandated to coordinate and consult regularly with all Member States and regional groups, and in an open, transparent and inclusive manner to “promote and strengthen Member States’ ownership.” The UN Secretary-General is requested to appoint a Conference Secretary-General. The Secretariats of the UN and International Organization for Migration (IOM) will jointly service the negotiations and preparatory process, with the UN Secretariat providing capacity and support, and IOM providing required the technical and policy expertise.
On participation in the conference and its preparatory process, the draft emphasizes the importance of effective participation of all relevant stakeholders, invites NGOs in consultative status with the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) to register for participation, and requests the UNGA President to draw up a list of other relevant representatives to participate in the process, no later than April 2017. A list of participants for the conference itself is to be submitted by April 2018, for Member States’ consideration on a non-objection basis. The text also encourages the convening of national multi-stakeholder consultations, and notes that the co-facilitators will convene informal dialogues for stakeholder participation, but specifies that “the intergovernmental nature of the negotiations … will be fully respected.”
UNGA President Peter Thomson informed UN Member States in a letter that the final draft on modalities for the negotiations will be brought to the UNGA for adoption once its programme budget implications have been reviewed by the UN Secretary-General, the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ) and the UNGA’s Fifth Committee (administrative and budgetary). [Letter from UNGA President and Agreed Draft Resolution] [Letter from Co-Facilitators] [SDG Knowledge Hub Story on Preparations, 10 January]