La Strada Documentation Center

Undocumented Migrants Have Rights! Workshop Report on Protection and Gaps Under the International Human Rights Framework

Document number
1382
Date
2007
Title
Undocumented Migrants Have Rights! Workshop Report on Protection and Gaps Under the International Human Rights Framework
Author/publisher
Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants (PICUM), Migrants Rights International (MRI)
Availability
View/save PDF version of this document
Document type(s)
Meeting Documentation/Conference Reports,
Keywords
Migrant rights; Migration management; Comprehensive approach to migration; Migration policy; Irregular Migration, Feminization of migration, Economic migration, Labour migration, Free movement, Undocumented migrants; Undocumented labour;
Summary
On 30 March 2007, the Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants (PICUM), and Migrants Rights International (MRI) jointly held a workshop on the international human rights framework and its application to undocumented migrants. The event was composed of a plenary session (Part I. An Overview of the International Human Rights Framework and Part II. How can a rights-based approach be used to bridge the gap between the international framework and the reality on theground? Examples of defending undocumented migrants’ humanrights in different regions of the world) as well as of the two workshop sessions.In the first workshop session antitled: Experiences of discrimination, participants were asked to share their experience andexpertise on how undocumented migrants are discriminated when it concerningtheir human rights, including:Specific attention was to be given to the particularities of human rights violationsconcerning undocumented women and children.After this exchange of information on the legal and social situation of undocumentedmigrants in many different countries in the simultaneous workshops and afterhaving heard reports from the other workshops, the second workshop session entitled: Arguments and strategies for defending rightsfocused on arguments and strategies employed by the workshop participants inorder to defend undocumented migrants’ rights. In the same three simultaneousworkshops participants were requested to once again share their experiences andexpertise. They were asked to evaluate the effectiveness of the measures they took,and report on some of the arguments that they used to justify that undocumentedmigrants are not “illegal” and have rights.The second workshop sessions were an opportunity to discuss some of the followingquestions:o How is it possible to raise awareness about rights among bothundocumented migrants and amongst those providing them assistance(e.g. NGOs, unions, local authorities, professionals, etc.)?o What are experiences in using the media in order to influence publicopinion and policy makers?o What are the particularities of carrying out advocacy on different levels(e.g. local, national, European, international, etc.) or with defendingcases in the courts?o Are there any other, newly developed ways to defend undocumentedmigrants’ rights?
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