Glimpse Into the NGO Committee on Migration
By Ann Birot-Salsbury (AAWE Paris)
In 2016, through the amazing FAWCO network, I had the good fortune to meet Jane Politi when we both happened to be in Geneva for different conferences that were, fortunately, across the street from one another. Jane is the Vice-Chair of the NGO Committee on Migration and represents FAWCO on the Committee. At that time, it was less than two months since the initiative that became the AAWE Community-wide Refugee Task Force started in Paris, and I was still trying to figure out the lay of the land locally so really did not have a grasp on what was happening internationally.
The face to face meeting with Jane lay the ground work for staying in contact and starting to make the link between the local and the international in service of translating international policy recommendations to local applied initiatives, as well as inspiring others across the globe about what is possible locally. Thanks to continuing the dialogue virtually and with lots of support from Laurie Richardson, FAWCO’s UN Liaison, on October 11, 2018, I had the pleasure of presenting the “good practices” including the partnerships (currently 11 partner organizations including AAWE and FAWCO) of the AAWE Community-wide Refugee Task Force to the NGO Committee on Migration at their monthly meeting at the offices of the Baha'i International Community in New York City.
The meeting was attended by about 50 people in the room and others via Livestream (because there was more interest in attending the meeting than seats available) representing various Non-Governmental Organizations with an interest in migration and migration policies. In addition to my presentation on behalf of FAWCO, the following made presentations: Colleen Thouez, Open Society Foundation; Josephine Tan, Lakehead University, Ontario, Canada; Danielle De la Fuente, Amal Alliance; and Liora Danan, NYC Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs. The theme for each of our talks was “Social Inclusion in a Migration Context: Collecting Good Practices”, with my presentation being “A Snapshot of the AAWE Community-wide Refugee Task Force in Paris,” which included talking about the launch of the international FAWCO Refugee Network.
Jane and the meeting facilitators encouraged dialogue and networking to take this initiative forward to applying the guidelines outlined in the Global Compact for Migration. In fact, I call Jane a “match-maker,” because I see what joy she takes in introducing people to each other with hope that the connection may bear fruit for this large initiative around migration.
The NGO Committee on Migration recently played a key part in developing the Global Compact on Migration (GCM), the document which lists guidelines for basic human rights for migrants as well as calling for ways to create safe migration and reducing factors that cause forced migration. The GCM is the first inter-governmentally negotiated agreement, prepared under the auspices of the United Nations, to cover all dimensions of international migration in a holistic and comprehensive manner. "A Glance at the Global Compact for Migration" provides a review of the main points of the GCM.
The timing of my presentation was perfect because, at that moment, the Committee was launching a process to identify “good practices” to be presented in Marrakesh, Morocco in December at the conference to adopt the Global Compact for Migration, where interested representatives from around the world would meet. Kenia Guimaraes from AAWE Paris and Diala Nasser from the American International Women’s Club of Marrakesh represented FAWCO at the Adoption Conference for the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM) on December 10 and 11. Read about Kenia and Diala's experience at the conference in the December FAWCO UN Liaison Bulletin.
I walked away with the following understanding:
- ·Clarity that there is some mirroring between the NGO Committee on Migration and the AAWE Community-wide Refugee Task Force – both have strong support from faith-based organizations and both rely on cross-organizational collaboration to be effective.
- ·It is crucial to the coherence and integrity of migration management to keep the channels of communication open between the international and the local levels.
- ·There is a huge international network of like-minded people that want to change the framework about migration to highlight the opportunities for all.
- ·We as an international community are “young” in our embracing of migration and have a long way to go to put structures in place that truly leverage the positive factors around migration; yet some amazing and inspiring initiatives are already emerging and we in FAWCO are part of that!