The First UN Convention on Migrant Workers
| Published date | 01 June 1991 |
| DOI | 10.1177/016934419100900202 |
| Date | 01 June 1991 |
| Author | Shirley Hune,Jan Niessen |
| Subject Matter | Part A: Article |
NQHR
2/1991
PART A: ARTICLES
THE
FIRST
UN CONVENTION ON MIGRANT WORKERS'
Shirley
Rune
and Jan Niessen:
IIntroduction
In December 1990 the United Nations General Assembly adopted by
consensus the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of
All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families. This first UN
Convention on migrants is now
open
for signature by States and will enter
into force once 20 States have ratified it or acceded to it.
In a world that is becoming increasingly smaller and where people are
very mobile, it has become more than ever necessary to (further) develop
international law aimed at the protection of those who are compelled to
build up a life elsewhere or migrate voluntarily.
Certainly, general UN human rights instruments - together called the
International Bill of Rights -
are
applicable to every human being and,
apart from that, contain anti-discrimination clauses. However, they do not
address the specific rights of migrants. The same can be said of the
International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial
Discrimination. There is also the tandem international accord on political
migration, namely the Convention relating to the Status of Refugees (1951)
and the Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees (1967). However, these
instruments apply to people who abandontheir homelands for political and
not for economic reasons.
In other words, the new Convention can be seen as a necessary
extension of global efforts to expand human rights, including those of
migrant workers and their family members.
It
provides also some means to
review the compliance of States in upholding these rights.
See, for the text of the Convention, Appendix I of this NQHR.
••
Dr. Shirley Hune is associate provost at Hunter College of the City University of New
York. Dr. Jan Niessen is the General Secretaryof the Churches Committee for Migrants
in Europe in Brussels. Both authors monitored the drafting process very closely.
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