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The Migrant Workers Convention in Europe. Obstacles to the Ratification of the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families

Document number
1624
Date
2007
Title
The Migrant Workers Convention in Europe. Obstacles to the Ratification of the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families
Author/publisher
Euan MacDonald, Ryszard Cholewinski, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation
Availability
View/save PDF version of this document
Document type(s)
International Law, Research/Study/Analysis,
Keywords
UNESCO migration studies 1, Informal sector, Labour exploitation, Migrant rights; Migration management; Comprehensive approach to migration; Migration policy; Restrictive migration measures, Irregular Migration, Feminization of migration, Economic migration, Labour migration, Free movement, Undocumented migrants; Undocumented labour;
Summary
The International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families (ICRMW) entered into force on 1 July 2003, some 13 years after it had been formally opened for ratifi cation in 1990. It has, however, attracted very little in the way of support from states: the recent ratifi cations by Argentina and Albania, in 2007, have increased the number of States Parties to a mere 37 – a fi gure that is, by some considerable distance, the lowest of any of the instruments viewed by the Offi ce of the High Commissioner for Human Rights as “core” human rights treaties. This lack of success becomes all the more apparent upon consideration of the fact that not one major migrant receiving state is among the parties to the Convention. The purpose of this report is to analyse the reasons behind non-ratifi cation in one of the most developed migrant-receiving regions in the world: the European Economic Area, which includes the 27 Member States of the European Union and Liechtenstein, Iceland and Norway.
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