United States - IOM Deputy Director General Laura Thompson will today (12/3/13) speak on the rights of migrant women at a side event panel discussion on the margins of the 57th Session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW).

The panel, co-organized by IOM and the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), will also include speakers from UN Women, the NGO Andolan and the UN Permanent Mission of Mexico.

The panel will focus on the human rights of migrant women in the context of the CSW’s central theme – the elimination and prevention of all forms of violence against women and girls.

Migration and migrant rights are currently high on the UN agenda ahead of October, when the UN General Assembly will convene the 2nd High Level Dialogue on International Migration and Development (HLD).  
 
The HLD, which will examine migration’s contribution to development, will include four round tables, one of which will address measures to protect the human rights of migrants. It is expected to strongly focus on women, who now account for over 50 per cent of the world’s 215 million international migrants

Most women migrants work in under-regulated sectors, including domestic work and agriculture, which makes them particularly vulnerable to abuse and exploitation. Women are also more likely to become victims of human trafficking than men.     

IOM promotes a more rights-based approach to migration that ensures access by migrants to their social and economic rights, taking into account differentiated vulnerabilities based on gender, age, health, legal status and other factors.

A copy of Ambassador Thompson’s speech can be downloaded from http://www.iom.int/files/live/sites/iom/files/speech/docs/DDG-CSW-Side-Event-Statement-07032013.pdf (Check against delivery)

For more information, please contact  

Chris Lom
IOM Geneva
Tel: +41 22 717 9486
Email: clom@iom.int