December 10, International Human Rights Day … December 18, International Migrants Day… An opportunity to focus on the tragic fate of migrants and the violence that they experience.

The last few months have been particularly alarming: one immediately thinks about the migrants who are reduced to slavery in Libya, which a recent CNN report has exposed, and which has outraged the public opinion and mobilized the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

We also think about the ordeal experienced by the Rohingya, a stateless Muslim minority that is rejected in Burma and forced into exile. Among the 640 000 people who have taken refuge in Bangladesh, 6 700 were killed. The UN denounces a real “ethnic cleansing”.

On the eve of a year marked by the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, there is an urgent need to place the human being back at the heart of this unprecedented global migration crisis.

To see our previous weekly editorials on international news, take a look here!