Mr. Abdelhamid El Jamri, Chairperson of the UN Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families (CMW) will be visiting Bangladesh as a side event to his visit to the Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights (OHCHR) – Asia Pacific Regional Office in Bangkok, Thailand.  The OHCHR regional office has invited Mr. El Jamri to be among the keynote speakers for its activity on 13 December for the 20th Anniversary of the UN 1990 MWC.

At the invitation of MFA members from Bangladesh, Mr. El Jamri will extend his stay in Asia to do a country visit to Bangladesh. In line with this, MFA is organizing a public forum with Mr. El Jamri on 15th December.  The event takes place within the MFA networks’ celebration of Migrants’ Campaign Month (MCM) with the 2010 theme, “Reclaim the Promise…Ratify the Convention!”

It is hoped that the country visit of the CMW chair will help further the advocacy for the protection and promotion of migrant workers from Bangladesh as well as push the government to ratify the convention.  Bangladesh is among the major countries of origin for migrant workers in the South Asian region. The Government has signed, but not yet ratified, the UN 1990 MWC on 7 October 1998.  MFA and its members have been campaigning for several years now for Bangladesh to ratify the convention.

The CMW is the body of independent experts that monitors implementation of the UN 1990 International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and  Members of their Families (UN 1990 MWC) by its state parties.

See more at http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Publications/FactSheet24rev.1en.pdf .