Experts call for respect for human rights in migration policies
According to the United Nations, there are currently some 281 million migrants worldwide. Although this represents only 3.6% of the global population, migration poses challenges of various kinds. To contribute to the debate, but also to the generation of policies and laws "that guarantee respect for the most fundamental rights", Nebrija University presented the new Nebrija-Santander Global Chair in Migration and Human Rights, directed by Diego Acosta, Professor of European and Migration Law at the University of Bristol.
- A "very long" road ahead
- "Problematic" relations
- "A hallmark of the culture of globalisation"
- New chair at Nebrija University
The recently inaugurated Chair, which scheduled its inaugural event at the Madrid-Princesa Campus, included the participation of Felipe González Morales, former United Nations Rapporteur for Migrants' Rights (2017-2023) and professor at the Diego Portales University in Santiago de Chile, Elspeth Guild, Professor of Law at Queen Mary University (London) and Jean Monnet Professor ad personam, and María Jesús Herrera, Head of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) Mission in Spain. They all referred to the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, signed in 2018 by the majority of UN Member States at an Intergovernmental Conference in Marrakech (Morocco), as a reference in this area that for the first time establishes migration as a multilateral issue.
A "very long" road ahead
Regarding the Pact, "an unprecedented step towards strengthening multilateralism in migration", Felipe González Morales pointed out that in the area of human rights "it does not make significant contributions, except for a few points such as the gender approach". Acknowledging that tackling migration "is not at all easy from a legal point of view" and that "there is still a very long way to go" to "give force" to the Pact, the professor from the Diego Portales University emphasised the tension between security and human rights, which "is at the heart of a large part of current migration issues", for example, "hot returns", the smuggling of migrants and trafficking. These last two aspects "in many countries are used interchangeably and are not the same thing; often this confusion justifies restrictive and repressive policies".
Likewise, Felipe González Morales warned of the "volatile advances" in the migration policies of states, "which change when the colour of the government in power or the person in charge changes, and even with the same people in charge, they change overnight". In his opinion, the implementation of "greater multilateralism" makes "more difficult" the strategy of many governments to change these strategies and use migrants as a "bargaining chip". The former UN rapporteur also urged civil society to be informed about the migration policies of their countries and to have access to all public information in this field.
"Problematic" relations
After describing as a "fantastic initiative" the creation of the new chair at Nebrija University to lay the groundwork for thinking on migration and human rights, Elspeth Guild spoke at the day's debate on the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, the first inter-governmentally negotiated agreement, prepared under the auspices of the United Nations, which covers all dimensions of international migration in a holistic and comprehensive manner.
In the "problematic" relations between migration and human rights where the former is sometimes perceived as a challenge to the sovereignty of states, Guild argued that, by its very definition, human rights have to apply not only to those born in a country, but also to those arriving in it, "and this clashes with the idea that the state has to protect and ensure human rights for its own people".
Education as one of the bulwarks of migration and human rights, the institutions involved in the Global Compact and the limitations arising from the free movement of people were other elements present in the speech by the Queen Mary University law professor.
"A hallmark of the culture of globalisation"
It was precisely human mobility as "the watchwords of the culture of globalisation" and borders as "a meeting point and a place for dialogue" that made up María Jesús Herrera's speech, which was marked by seeing migration "as a contribution to development and the improvement of the lives of people in both the countries of origin and destination".
Faced with challenges such as climate change and digitalisation, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) "understands that migration can and should be part of the solution", which has the Global Compact and the United Nations Secretary General's Agenda for Action on Internal Displacement "as roadmaps to leave no one behind".
María Jesús Herrera, who called for optimism, warned of the "growing" politicisation of migration issues, which also "overshadows" the protection of human rights. In this way, the policies coordinated and drawn up by international organisations with the help of states and other agents are, in her opinion, a "unique" tool.
New chair at Nebrija University
From the Nebrija-Santander Global Chair in Migration and Human Rights, Diego Acosta emphasised two challenges: "To see how to regulate situations in which a large number of people are forced to leave their country simultaneously, either as refugees or under other legal figures, and to see how to facilitate the labour mobility so necessary for many States, but also that of students, family members or pensioners". The trend in this last challenge points to the creation of regional areas for facilitating the movement of people, such as in the European Union, but also in South America, the Caribbean, Africa and the post-Soviet space.
The Nebrija-Santander Global Chair, which "will serve as a framework for a wide range of teaching and research activities and forums for debate", comes at a key historical moment, just as the 75th anniversary of the signing of the University Declaration of Human Rights has just passed.
Alfonso López de la Osa, Dean of the Faculty of Law and International Relations at Nebrija University, joined this new Chair to the Nebrija-Santander Global Chair of Spanish as a Language for Migrants and Refugees and the Jean Monnet EUDEFENCE Chair as examples of the reflection of Nebrija University, based "on its four pillars of academic excellence, pedagogical innovation, internationalisation and employability".