Abstract
A distinguishing feature of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM) is its “whole-of-society” approach, which includes states, but also engages a “broad multi-stakeholder” partnership to address global migration “in all its dimensions” (GCM 2018, para 15). As one of the stakeholders that participated in the shaping and implementation of this new global normative instrument, we suggest that a spirit of international solidarity can be located in the cooperative and consensual processes and platforms that make up its architecture. Drawing on the English school’s conception of international society, we argue that the GCM has advanced international solidarity in the acceptance by stakeholders of agreed core principles relating to migration governance and in the creation of spaces and platforms for whole-of-society dialogue. It is within these emergent spaces of the GCM that the possibility of concrete and meaningful improvement in the lives of migrants and other people on the move can be made.
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Notes
Put simply, this transformation refers to an “inter-human” level of society rather than the interaction of polities described by international society. See Lees 2016.
The creation of the Declaration on Right to International Solidarity (DRIS) is written into the mandate of the Independent Expert on Human Rights and International Solidarity. The development of the DRIS has been through multiple phases since 2005, including the submission of a working paper on international solidarity and human rights, an examination of principles, norms and issues that would form the basis of a right to international solidarity, multiple consultations with states and civil society, and the production a draft text. The text was submitted as an annex to the Virginia Dandan’s last report to the UN Human Rights Council in 2017. For more detail on the history of the draft DRIS, see OHCHR (2020).
Five states, Czech Republic, Hungary, Israel, Poland, and the USA, voted against the GCM, and a further 12 states abstained from the vote.
Hungary did not negotiate as part of the EU Bloc and the USA did not participate in the consultations or negotiations of the GCM.
The UN Migration Network was established in 2018 in Marrakech with the task of ensuring coordinated support for states working towards the implementation of the CGM. It has an Executive Committee of several UN agencies and IOM as its Secretariat. See Domicelj and Gottardo 2019 for more detail.
Objective 13 refers to the use of immigration detention only as a measure of last resort and requires work towards alternatives. It provides a series of recommended actions for doing so.
Objectives 5, 6 and 7 refer to the availability and flexibility of pathways for regular migration; the fair and ethical treatment of non-citizen workers; and the reduction of vulnerabilities through migration journeys respectively.
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The authors would like to acknowledge Associate Professor Savitri Taylor and Dr. Jodie Boyd of La Trobe University for their guidance and support through the drafting and editorial process.
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Gottardo, C., Rego, N. The Global Compact for Migration (GCM), International Solidarity and Civil Society Participation: a Stakeholder’s Perspective. Hum Rights Rev 22, 425–456 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12142-020-00611-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12142-020-00611-z