The Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM) is an intergovernmentally negotiated agreement, prepared under the auspices of the United Nations, that describes itself as covering "all dimensions of international migration in a holistic and comprehensive manner".
The compact was formally endorsed by the United Nations General Assembly on 19 December 2018.
The Compact is a "non-binding cooperative framework", meaning it has limited weight under international law.
Contents
Background
On 19 September 2016, the nations of the United Nations General Assembly unanimously adopted the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants. The Declaration recognized a need for more cooperation between nations to manage migration effectively. The declaration set off a process leading to the negotiation of the Global Compact for Migration.
A resolution was adopted by the UN General Assembly on 6 April 2017, which decided on the modalities and timeline for the compact. The agreed upon process consisted of the following three phases:
Consultations (April–November 2017): six sessions in Geneva, New York City and Vienna
Stocktaking (December 2017–January 2018), leading to a first draft ("zero draft")
Intergovernmental negotiations (February–July 2018) at the UN headquarters in New York City.
On 9 March 2017, Louise Arbour was appointed by Secretary-General Guterres as his Special Representative for International Migration and was thus tasked with working with the nations and stakeholders to develop the compact.
On 10 December 2018, the document was approved by 164 nations during the Intergovernmental Conference to Adopt the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration.
On 19 December 2018, the United Nations General Assembly endorsed the compact through a vote. 152 countries voted in favor of the resolution to endorse it, while the United States, Hungary, Israel, Czech Republic and Poland voted against it. 12 countries abstained from the vote.
Substance of the agreement
There are 23 objectives and commitments listed in the draft agreement. These include collecting and using accurate and anonymized data to develop evidence-based migration policy, ensuring that all migrants have proof of identity, enhancing availability and flexibility for regular migration, encouraging cooperation for tracking missing migrants and saving lives, ensuring migrants can access basic services, and making provisions for both full inclusion of migrants and social cohesion.
The draft agreement recognises the principles of national sovereignty:The Global Compact reaffirms the sovereign right of States to determine their national migration policy and their prerogative to govern migration within their jurisdiction, in conformity with international law. Within their sovereign jurisdiction, States may distinguish between regular and irregular migration status, including as they determine their legislative and policy measures for the implementation of the Global Compact, taking into account different national realities, policies, priorities and requirements for entry, residence and work, in accordance with international law.
The agreement lists actions for governments to draw from, including to "promote independent, objective and quality reporting of media outlets, including internet-based information, including by sensitizing and educating media professionals on migration-related issues and terminology" and to "support multicultural activities through sports, music, arts, culinary festivals, volunteering and other social events".
The agreement makes no distinction between illegal and legal migrants, but does distinguish repeatedly between regular and irregular migrants, affirms the right of states to distinguish between regular and irregular migration status, and commits signatories to "preventing irregular migration". The text does not make a distinction between economic migrants and refugees.
Calling the agreement a "historic moment", General Assembly President Miroslav Lajčák emphasized "It does not encourage migration, nor does it aim to stop it. It is not legally binding. It does not dictate. It will not impose. And it fully respects the sovereignty of States."
Positions
Australia, Austria, Bulgaria, Chile, the Czech Republic, Dominican Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Italy, Israel, Latvia, Poland, Slovakia and Switzerland did not attend an international conference in the Moroccan city of Marrakesh to adopt the agreement. The United States did not participate in the negotiation of the agreement.
Albania: Albania has signed the document.
Australia: Prime Minister Scott Morrison stated that the agreement could "undermine Australia’s strong border protection laws and practices", and would not sign it.
Belgium: In Belgium, government party N-VA, including its Secretary of State for Migration Theo Francken came out against participating, while the three other government parties remained in favour, creating a political deadlock. All the parties (N-VA, Open Vld, CD&V and MR) did in fact agree on the compact and Charles Michel announced Belgium's favourable position at the General Assembly of the UN on 27 September 2018. Unfavourable election results for N-VA and Austria's position on the compact had the N-VA change its position. On 4 December, the Prime Minister of Belgium, Charles Michel, announced that the issue would be taken to parliament for a vote. On 5 December, parliament voted 106 to 36 in favor of backing the agreement. Michel stated that he would endorse the pact on behalf of the parliament, not on behalf of the divided government. Consequently, N-VA quit the government; the other three parties continued as a minority government (Michel II) that lasted 1 week and led to the fall of the Belgian government on 18 December 2018.
Bosnia and Herzegovina: Bosnia and Herzegovina has signed the document.
Brazil: Affirmed support for the document at the Marrakesh conference, but the Jair Bolsonaro government announced that Brazil would withdraw its support for the document. Citing "immigration must be treated in accordance with the reality and sovereignty of each country", Bolsonaro again confirmed the withdrawal in a ceremony that happened on 2 January 2019. On 8 January 2019, Foreign Minister Ernesto Araújo asked diplomats to inform the UN that Brazil had withdrawn from the Global Compact for Migration. In January 2023, after President Lula took office for his third term under the government slogan "Union and reconstruction", Itamaraty officially communicated the country's return to the Global Compact, reinforcing "the Brazilian Government's commitment to the protection and promotion of the rights of more than 4 million Brazilians living abroad".
Criticism
The Chancellor of Austria, Sebastian Kurz, stated that the compact would reduce Austria's sovereignty and mix up the difference between illegal and legal immigration as well as that between economic and humanitarian immigration. His vice chancellor, Heinz-Christian Strache, argued that the compact could potentially be interpreted as defining migration as a "human right", which he said "can and must not be the case."
The Australian government has criticized the agreement, claiming that it does not distinguish between legal and illegal migrants, particularly when it comes to welfare. They have also claimed that the compact could impose obligations to support migrants even when they have returned to their country of origin. The Australian government believes that the compact would undermine their current migration policies.
In Finland, while the government and all other parties approved of the treaty, the Finns Party opposed it and demanded a vote in parliament. The provisions disputed by the Finns in parliament are that both legal and illegal immigrants would be bestowed many of the same rights such as rights to basic services, that the treaty would not allow categorical detention of illegal immigrants, and that the treaty would make migration a human right.
Goal 17, which condemns discrimination against migrants, has been criticized due to measures for "shaping the perception of migration". Dutch MEP Marcel de Graaff alleged that the compact would allow to defund news outlets espousing anti-migration rhetoric and that the pact could be used to criminalize political criticism.
A protest march planned by Flemish nationalist groups, was not granted a permit to protest on 17 December by the mayor of Brussels. 5,500 protestors attended the march, notwithstanding the lack of permit. A counter-demonstration of around 1,000 people was organized by NGOs and left-wing groups.
The German newspaper Der Tagesspiegel criticised the German Federal Foreign Office in November 2018 for not explaining why the final version of the compact was different from the last published draft by pointing out that the wording had been changed from migration "could have positive effects" to migration "does have positive effects". The Federal Foreign Office did not give a public explanation at that time. By using the German freedom of information act, the newspaper obtained several documents by May 2019 which revealed demands by some nations to make some aspects of the pact binding. The details of those talks had been removed from the documents by the Foreign Office, in a self proclaimed attempt to prevent damage to Germany's reputation as a reliable partner. Additionally the paper alleged that the Foreign Office had made false or misleading statements to the press and the opposition, by claiming that the negotiations for the pact in New York had been open to the "interested public", while according to the obtained documents, parts of the Compact had been negotiated in closed sessions.