The UN's Search for a Global Compact on Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration

Abstract

In 2016, the UN's General Assembly called for the negotiation of a Global Compact on Safe, Orderly, and Regulation Migration to be adopted in 2018. The consultations began at the start of 2017 and the negotiations began six months later. Yet, it is uncertain what a Global Compact on Migration should include and what it should look like. What should be the key objectives of a Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration? In this Article I examine the issue which the UN seeks to address through an analysis of the three problems: Unsafe migration, disorderly migration, and irregular migration.

The UN Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration: to what extent are human rights and sustainable development mutually compatible in the field of migration?

“…It is worth noting that the language took a turn away from the SDGs when the word ‘responsible’ was removed and the GCM was entitled the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration. Elsewhere, I have examined what unsafe, disorderly and irregular migration is, assuming that it is against these misfortunes that the international community sought to design the Compact (Guild, 2017, p. 1779; Guild, 2018, p. 325). The word ‘development’ appears seventy times in the New York Declaration, while references to human rights appear only thirty-four times.…”

Unravelling the subjects and objects of EU external migration law

“…Thus, as Guild states, fundamental planks of international migration law are fundamentally discriminatory or indeed unduly bound up with border control, including the UN's Global Migration Compact. Safe, fair and orderly migration requires complete disaggregation of migration regulation from border control, of all nations (Guild 2017;Costello 2016). This, however, remains far from the current status quo globally (Guild 2018).…”

Migrancy Networks and Human Rights Imaginaries: Globalized Narratives of Migration and the Legal Formation of 'Subjects on the Move'

“…As a central UN document stated in 2001, "[i]nternational and national efforts to defend human rights of migrants and combat xenophobia remain scattered, fragmented and relatively limited in impact" (Appleyard 2001, 12). In contrast, more current international debates on migration and human rights have demonstrated a growing tendency to move away from conventional "normative categories such as travelers, tourists, visitors, migrants, asylum seekers, refugees, repeat border offenders" (Guild 2017(Guild , 1783. As Elspeth Guild has suggested, this may be an attempt to describe the cross-border movement of people in a consistent manner which is not tainted by normative constructions which are created by imputing intentions to people moving […].…”