Outcome Documents from the Asia-Pacific and West Asia Regional Consultations

Migrant Forum in Asia together with its network partners organized two regional civil society consultations in preparation for the second UN High Level Dialogue on Migration and Development (2nd UNHLD). The 2nd UNHLD will take place on October 2013 in the UN Headquarters in New York. MFA and Building and Wood Workers International hosted the Asia-Pacific Regional Consultation on 27-28 May 2013 in Bangkok, Thailand. The consultation brought together 60 trade unionists, civil society organizations, and independent activists representing 43 organizations and 17 countries in the Asia Pacific region. The two day sessions were structured as writeshops, whereby participants revisited and reworked past policy recommendations related to each of the 7 points of the 5-year civil society agenda. A version of the final outcome document was presented by 6 of the consultation’s participants at the UNESCAP-led Asia-Pacific Regional Preparatory Meeting for the General Assembly High-level Dialogue on International Migration and Development 2013.

On 2-3 July 2013, MFA, the ILO and Daem Observatory for Consultation & Training organized, facilitated and gathered together forty-three representatives of civil society, trade unions, and academia particularly from the West Asia region.This gathering followed the ESCWA preparatory consultation for the UNHLD, held in Egypt on 2-3 June 2013. Recognizing and affirming ESCWA recommendations that civil society participation be enhanced in the UNHLD process, the aim of the gathering was for civil society active on migrants’ rights and migrant protection in the region to provide inputs into the seven-point, five-year civil society action agenda.

The 7 points of the 5-year civil society agenda (recently evolved into an 8 point 5 year agenda) developed by the Global Coalition on Migration and the international civil society steering committee for the UNHLD, are endorsed by 100+ civil society organizations worldwide.

The two consultations in Asia was part of the seven regional consultative processes that took place globally. Concrete policy recommendations from these consultations were put forward to governments during the Civil Society Interactive Hearings in New York on 15 July 2013, and will be advanced during the Civil Society Days of the 2nd UNHLD and the official UNHLD in October 2013.

The recommendations from the Asia Pacific and West Asia civil society consultations are combined into one outcome document. Download the document here.

Migrant Forum in Asia is instrumental to and an active member of the Global Coalition on Migration. For more information about GCM and its vibrant role in the organizing of the civil society activities at the HLD, visit the website here