UNITAR Participates in the Fifteenth Coordination Meeting on International Migration

16 February 2017, New York, USA - Mr. Nikhil Seth, UN Assistant Secretary-General and Executive Director of the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) chaired today a Panel of Experts organized by the Population Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) of the United Nations during the Fifteenth Coordination Meeting on International Migration.

Mr. Seth stressed the need for ongoing negotiation for a Migration Compact to be open and transparent and for the outcome to be action-oriented and focused on improving the life of migrants.

Mr. John Wilmoth, Director of the Population Division of DESA was one of the panellists and provided the audience with an historical background of international negotiations addressing migrations, General Assembly resolutions, the 1994 Cairo Conference and the ongoing negotiations for a Migration Compact.

H. E. Mr. Masud Bin Momen, Permanent Representative of Bangladesh to the United Nations delivered a speech and recalls the status of ongoing negotiations stressed the relevance of inputs from the business sector as well as the need to be action-oriented.

A representative from UNHCR delivered a speech. She focused on the refugee components of the New York Declaration, stressed the complementarity between migrants and refugees and identified the following priority issues: financing, economic impact of refugees, best practices on integration of refugees, and stand-by arrangements.

An OHCHR representative also delivered a speech noting the relevance of the issue of human rights with regard to migrants and refugees and stressing the need for human rights to be streamlined in the Migration Compact. He further underlined that migrants, as human beings, fully enjoy the principles of human rights international law. 

Photos: Panelists of the Meeting