WASHINGTON – The General Secretariat of the Organization of American States (OAS)presented its member countries with a work plan designed to promote public policies, legislation and best practices to protect the human rights of migrants in the Americas.
Jean Michel Arrighí, Director of the OAS Department of International Legal Affairs, presented the plan on behalf of Secretary General José Miguel Insulza, during a special session of the OAS Committee on Juridical and Political Affairs. Participants included government experts and representatives of entities within the inter-American system, other international organizations and civil society.
Ambassador Osmar Chohfi of Brazil, who chairs the Committee, noted that “the issue of migration is very important to the inter-American agenda, given the impact that the demographic movement of citizens has on the economic, social, labor and cultural structures in our countries.”
Migration, he added, is a key aspect of the hemispheric experience that affects the politics and practices of both the countries of origin as well as those that receive migrant workers. “It tests the capacity of governments to manage the flow of immigrants in their territories as well as to protect their citizens abroad,” the diplomat said.
In presenting the Work Plan on the Implementation of the Inter-American Program for the Promotion and Protection of the Human Rights of Migrants, Arrighí said that its purpose is to provide a follow-up to OAS mandates on this issue, as well as to organize and plan activities that will be carried out by the different area of the General Secretariat, “as part of a fundamental aspect of the OAS agenda.”
He highlighted the importance of international cooperation in protecting the rights of migrant workers and their families, “ranging from the exchange of information and best practices among countries of origin, transit and destination, to the consideration of the special needs of vulnerable groups of migrants, such as children, women and indigenous people.”
The hemisphere’s leaders, within the framework of the Summit of the Americas process, established the need to strengthen cooperation mechanisms in this area. In fulfillment of this mandate, the Permanent Council, through its Committee on Juridical and Political Affairs, drafted the Inter-American Program, which was adopted by the OAS General Assembly in Fort Lauderdale, in 2005.
