The Global Migration Group (GMG), a coalition of UN agencies, marked International Migrants Day 2013 with a call to incorporate migration concerns in post-2015 goals and targets, stressing the importance of international cooperation on the global governance of migration.
18 December 2013: The Global Migration Group (GMG), a coalition of UN agencies, marked International Migrants Day 2013 with a call to incorporate migration concerns in post-2015 goals and targets, stressing the importance of international cooperation on the global governance of migration.
The GMG appealed to UN Member States to include migration and migrants in their vision for inclusive, equitable and sustainable development strategies at the global and national levels, including the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The Group welcomed the outcomes of the second UN High-Level Dialogue on International Migration and Development, held in New York, US, from 3-4 October 2013, which prioritized the need to protect the rights of all migrants and their families, and to fully integrate migration in the new global development agenda.
The GMG proposes three ways to include migration concerns: incorporating migration issues in targets and indicators of specific post-2015 development goals; respecting the human rights and labor rights of migrants; and making migration part of a new global partnership for development. The Group suggests that measures to reduce the human, social and financial costs of migration can be introduced, for example, under goals of poverty eradication and inclusive growth, adaptation and resilience in the context of environmental change, macroeconomic stability and women’s empowerment, among others.
The GMG is an inter-agency group on which the heads of 16 UN entities are represented. The GMG contributes to the work of the Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD), an intergovernmental process that emerged from the first UN High-Level Dialogue on International Migration and Development, in September 2006.
International Migrants Day has been celebrated yearly since 2000. The date marks the anniversary of the UN General Assembly’s (UNGA) adoption of the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families. [GMG Press Release] [GMG Website] [International Migrants Day Website] [IISD RS Story on Second High-Level Dialogue] [UN Women Press Release]