Mary Robinson, former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, addressed the Rethinking Global Immigration conference in New York

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Mary Robinson, former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, addressed the Rethinking Global Immigration conference in New York

News 24 of 38

The “so-called war on terror” has encouraged bigotry against migrants and refugees, former Irish president, Mary Robinson has warned at a migration conference in New York. In a hard-hitting speech, Ms Robinson also said that only the US and Somalia have yet to ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which provides “essential protection” to immigrant children in the US vulnerable to post 9/11 crackdowns. “By linking anti-terrorism measures and immigration control in the context of the so called ‘war on terror’, many governments have encouraged — however unintentionally — xenophobia against migrants and refugees,” she warned. Speaking against the backdrop of the US immigration debate, she said that refugees may enter countries illegally but are legally entitled to do so under international law. Ms Robinson, the former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, was addressing the Rethinking Global Immigration conference at New York University as executive director of Realising Rights: the Ethical Globalization Initiative (EGI), a New York-based human rights group she founded in 2002. Ms Robinson said she was conscious that she was a migrant in the US herself, but wanted to point out that migrants do not have the same protection as refugees and are open to exploitation. “We should keep in mind that historically there has been what is sometimes called a ‘protection gap’ for migrants, falling as they do between the two stools of citizens’ rights and those of internationally protected individuals, such as refugees,” she said. She added that the UN agreed in 1990 to fill this gap with the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrants Workers. Until that was ratified, countries must rely on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which was ratified by all countries except Somalia and the US. “A quick review of that Convention’s principles shows that they provide the framework for good policy, as well as essential protection for children of migrants,” she said. Related Links Irish Examiner

Author(s)	Sean O’Driscoll
Publication Date	27-05-2006
Source	Irish Examiner

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