WHAT IS A COMPACT?: Migrants’ Rights and State Responsibilities Regarding the Design of the UN Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration

Gammeltoft-Hansen, Thomas; Guild, Elspeth; Moreno-Lax, Violeta; Panizzon, Marion; Roele, Isobel (11 October 2017). WHAT IS A COMPACT?: Migrants’ Rights and State Responsibilities Regarding the Design of the UN Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration Lund: Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law

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On 19 September 2016, in response to the large movements of refugees and migrants around the world, the UN General Assembly held its first ever summit dedicated to this topic. The outcome was the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants, which not only reaffirms the importance of existing legal instruments to protect refugees and migrants, but also foresees two new global Compacts; one on refugees, and one of safe, orderly and regular migration. Both compacts are scheduled to be adopted by the General Assembly in the summer of 2018. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is responsible for the negotiation of the Compact on Refugees. The Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration is primarily in the hands of the UN Special Representative for International Migration, assisted by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), which became a UN related organisation in July of 2016.

While both these organisations have expressed much enthusiasm for the prospects of these new agreements in responding to the current challenges surrounding migration and refugee protection, the final content and resultant impact of each compact are as of yet uncertain. More fundamentally, there is little clarity on exactly what kind of international agreement a compact is, and where it sits in relation to existing instruments of international law and international relations. The term appears to have arrived fairly recently in international and regional discussions as an increasingly popular political tool with restricted legal content.

Item Type:	Working Paper
Division/Institute:	02 Faculty of Law > Department of Economic Law > World Trade Institute 10 Strategic Research Centers > World Trade Institute
UniBE Contributor:	Panizzon, Marion
Subjects:	300 Social sciences, sociology & anthropology > 340 Law 300 Social sciences, sociology & anthropology > 380 Commerce, communications & transportation
Publisher:	Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law
Language:	English
Submitter:	Marion Panizzon Christ
Date Deposited:	23 May 2022 16:53
Last Modified:	05 Dec 2022 16:15
URI:	https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/167570