On 2-3 November 2014, in a gathering of civil society organizations, trade unions and human rights advocates in Dubai, a discussion was initiated to step up the campaign for the ratification of the 1990 UN Migrant Workers Convention. The 25th Anniversary of the Convention in 2015 presents a unique opportunity to scale up the campaign and call on UN Member States to ratify the Convention and for the States parties to fulfill their commitments as part of their obligations to promote and protect the rights of all migrant workers and members of their families.
As a result of the meeting in Dubai, MFA together with the OHCHR Secretary of the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families, International Labour Organization, South Asian Regional Trade Union Council, Diplomacy Training Program, Arab Network for Migrants Rights, Solidarity Center, and Migrant Rights International, are pleased to launch a year-long campaign in celebration of the 25th Anniversary of the Convention.
Titled “Step It Up: Dignity, Rights, Development”, the global campaign seeks to reinvigorate efforts for ratification. The campaign encourages all stakeholders – States parties, trade unions, employers’ organizations, civil society organizations, migrant workers and members of their families to take part in this yearlong global initiative, beginning today, 18 December 2014 to 18 December 2015.
The Step It Up campaign through the online platform strives to weave together these interrelated issues and clearly demonstrates that migration is not an isolated matter but is tied to various dimensions of peoples’ struggles for equality, dignity, decent work and human rights.
To know more about the campaign, please visit http://cmw25.org/. Activities relating to the promotion of the human rights of migrant workers and members of their families as well as engagements with States to ratify the CMW will find space in this online platform.
Please see below list of organizations that have been instrumental in the conceptualization of this campaign.
- Arab Council Supporting Fair Trial and Human Rights (ACSFT), Egypt
- Building and Wood Workers International, MENA
- Caritas Lebanon Migrant Center, Lebanon
- Center for Migrant Advocacy, Philippines
- Chantal Nguyen, Australia
- Diplomacy Training Program, Australia
- Egyptian Foundation for Refugee Rights, Egypt
- Human Rights Commissions, Maldives
- IMA Research Foundation, Bangladesh
- Indian Social Club, Oman
- INSAN, Lebanon
- Kanlungan Foundation Center, Philippines
- Kuwait Society for Human Rights
- Middle East Centre for Trainings and Development
- Migrant Forum in Asia
- Migrant Rights, UAE
- Ministry of Labor, Lebanon
- Pravasalokam, India
- Pravasi Nepal Coordination Committee, Nepal
- Sathish Madhavan (V. M. Sathish), Journalist, UAE
- Tamkeen Fields for Aid, Jordan
Source: Migrant Forum in Asia