UN News


	NEWS BRIEFS - SNDatUN, Vol. 6, No. 03 (December 2008) BREAKING NEWS: UN AWARD TO AN SND At the end of last week we received word that our Sister Dorothy Stang will be among the seven who will be awarded the 2008 UN Prize in the Field of Human Rights on the 10^th December 2008. The date marks the sixtieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The award will be received posthumously by her brother David Stang and Sr. Joan of the NGO Office will represent the congregation. We hope that this will occasion an opportunity to bring the message of Dot’s life and death to a wider audience. In the words of the UN, The honorary award is given to individuals or organizations once every five years for ‘outstanding achievements in the field of human rights. It represents an opportunity to give public recognition to the achievements of the awardees themselves, as well as to send a clear message to human rights defenders the world over that the international community is grateful for, and supports, their efforts to promote human rights for all. The responsibility for the selection of the awardees is entrusted to a special committee composed of the President of the UN General Assembly, the president of the UN Economic and Social Council, the President of the Human Rights Council, the Chair of the UN Commission on the Status of Women and the Chairman of the Human Rights Council Advisory Committee. [For a list of previous recipients, see Supplement 03a of SNDatUN News Briefs, found in the Folder “SNDatUN” on SND News for those with access to First Class.] MIGRATION: HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUE [As explained in the last News Briefs, this issue will feature as its main article a report on the efforts of the NGOs working in the area of migrants and migration to bring a more people-centred approach to the topic. Mary Jo Toll, SND (Coesfeld), is a member of the SNDatUN extended NGO Office. She describes the last two Global Forums on Migration held last year in Belgium and this year in the Philippines, and then looks forward to the 2009 Forum slated to take place in Greece. jfb] Migration has been on the UN agenda since the organization’s founding and became the subject of the treaty Convention for the Protection of Migrant Workers and their Families (1990). In the past few years, the will to move from words to action has been driven in part by the fact that many more countries today find themselves in the position of sending, transiting, and receiving countries. At the UN High Level Dialogue on Migration in 2006, member states made a decision to pursue the issue of migration by means of a yearly Global Forum on Migration, hosted by volunteer member states outside of the UN system. The first Forum was hosted in July of 2007 by Belgium, and the focus was on the best use of remittances (money sent home by migrants for families who have little or no means of sustenance). This was considered a “safe” topic in order to attract member states that are not so friendly towards receiving migrants. For many developing countries, migrants’ remittances to their families are a far more effective source of development than foreign aid and government projects. To the dismay of NGOs, the suggestion was made that sending governments “tax” migrants’ remittances for their own development projects. In most intergovernmental meetings within the UN system NGOs normally have substantive access to the dialogue as is the case for the UN Commissions Geneva and New York. By contrast, NGOs, who are closest to the migrant experience, had no effective voice in the government meetings at the first Global Forum on Migration held in Brussels The one day allotted to Civil Society outside of the Forum was planned by the member states and the King Bedouin Foundation. Neither group was responsive to civil society’s concern for the human rights of migrants which are being increasingly violated. Migrants were spoken of at the Forum in terms of “human capital” and “labor commodity.” NGOs objected to this and to the lack of transparency. Since the first Forum NGOs and some member states have tried to bring the dialogue on migration back into the UN where NGOs have some voice in bringing grass roots experience to the table. At the second Forum held in October in Manila, thanks to the pressure mounted by NGOs and some sympathetic states, the topic of the human rights of migrants was listed for one roundtable during the civil society days which were separate from the government meetings. Unfortunately, the focus of discussion following the round table on human rights once again was on remittances. NGOs were not privy to the agenda discussed by the governments. Some of our constituencies were included in the Philippine Ayala Foundation’s planning board, and the NGO Committee on Migration in New York met with the foundation ahead of the meeting. However, practitioners’ groups had little say about speakers and the presentations were academic in nature. Migrants for the most part are driven to leave their countries of origin because of poverty. Yet, undeniably their work and their life experience benefit both their host countries and those of their origin. Too often migrants suffer both from a lack of recognition of this dual role and from widespread xenophobia. They are often criminalised for lack of proper documents, which are difficult for them to obtain. Employers exploit their consequent tenuous status and deprive them of many basic human rights, such as: due process, needed medical help, and provision for family reunification. This year’s Global Forum in Manila (October 2008) did move a small step closer to treating migrants as human beings with inalienable rights, rather than mere “human capital.” There is very much left to be done. The NGO Committee on Migration in NY has already met with the government representatives of Greece at the UN since they are slated to host the next Global Forum. Greece has said that they intend to improve collaboration between governments and international NGOs. The NGO Community is committed to ensure that the migration agenda promotes the dignity and rights of the more than 200,000 million persons who find themselves living and working outside of their countries of origin. Mary Jo Toll, SND (Coesfeld) MAJOR CONFERENCE ON FINANCING FOR DEVELOPMENT As this edition of SNDatUN News Briefs goes to the press (29^th November – 2^nd December), governments are in Doha, Qatar, meeting to review the Monterrey Conference (2002) which examined how to finance development. Carol Brandt, SND (Coesfeld), will write a summary of the outcome of this meeting in the January issue of this newsletter. In opening the Conference UN Secretary Ban Ki-moon called for “bold and effective efforts to ensure that today's emergency does not become tomorrow's human crisis with particularly devastating effects on the world's poorest. “ UN General Assembly President Miguel D''Escoto argued before the governments that, “We have a moral duty to do more than rearrange our faltering system we must transform it as well. More than new regulations, the world needs new alternatives.” [For the official UN Press Release with links to the full texts of their messages, see Supplement 03b of SNDatUN News Briefs, found in the Folder “SNDatUN” on SND News for those with access to First Class.] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Joan F. Burke, SND-N Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur NGO in Special Consultative Status with ECOSOC at the UN Associated with the UN Dept. of Public Information 211 East 43rd Street, Suite 504 New York City NY 10017 SNDatUN@SNDdeN.org Phone: 1 (201) 213-2390; Fax 1 (201) 451-0952 (Attn: Sr Joan Burke) "Women . . . working with others for justice and peace for all."