Leave no one behind! Migrant Women’s access to social protection
Date of Meeting: 14 March 2018
Meeting Organizer: Women in Migration Network
ISJC Staff Present: Captain Paula Mendes
Reporter: Captain Paula Mendes
Which SDG does this topic cover? 1, 3, 10, 16, 17
Type of meeting: CSW Parallel Event - Panel Presentation with Questions and Answers
Brief summary of presentation of information made
The moderator started sharing the Marrakech Women’s Rights Manifesto and encouraging everybody to sign up for it. It’s a call to governments to put women’s human rights at the center of migration policy.
The representative of GAATW (Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women) addressed the issue saying that, although she works for an agency that deals with human trafficking, they choose to deal with it as a structural problem that effects women that don’t have access to social protection (education, health care) and, as a consequence, they became vulnerable to traffic. Some other highlights:
- The absence of social protection is key in the decision of women to migrate
- There is a necessity to think about the undocumented migrants, who are excluded in policy and practice and need to be able to access services without fearing deportation
- Instead of saying regular and irregular migrants, the status should be higher and low range.
- For developing countries it’s a bigger challenge to engage in social protection for migrants.
- LGBTQ migrants are an even bigger challenging issue for the discussion.
The panel also discussed the Global Compact on Migration, a tool for advocacy which has 23 objectives and has the participation of most of the states. Although a very significant document, there are some challenges when it comes to get states on board, specially because, as one of the panelists stated, we are living in a polarized age worldwide. So, the issues of national sovereignty are still being discussed. It was mentioned that some countries like USA, Brazil and Hungary are not part of it for different reasons.
What was of particular significance to share with The Salvation Army globally
The Global Compact for Migration and also the Marrakech Women’s Rights Manifesto are two great resources to be shared worldwide, as many of the countries where The Salvation Army is working are dealing with migration issues.
Web links for more information
Womeninmigration.org
Coming up events and resources:
Draft General Comment n. 5 on Migrants Rights to Liberty and Freedom from Arbitrary Detention (www.ohchr.org)
General Recommendation on trafficking of women and girls in the context of global migration (first draft available in www.ohchr.org)
Global Forum on Migration & Development – Ecuador, November 25-29 / 2019 (https://gfmd.org)