Officials from countries that make up the South American Conference on Migration (SACM) are meeting this week in Cochabamba, Bolivia to exchange information, share experiences and best practices, and carry out consultations to promote regional cooperation on migration issues.

This year's conference is focusing on the South American Plan for Human Development and Migration, the Declaration on General Principles and Guidelines, migration and climate change, enhanced participation of civil society in governmental discussions, and other migration-related topics by member states and civil society.

In her speech at the opening session, IOM's Deputy Director General Laura Thompson congratulated the South American governments for their clear stand on the promotion of migrant rights and highlighted the importance of the Conference as a forum for policy coordination and convergence, which has already provided relevant contributions to the practical development of national migration policies.

The participants are also discussing and drafting the presentation from South America to be presented at the upcoming Global forum on Migration and Development scheduled to take place on 8-12 November in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.

The commitment of the participating countries (Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Surinam, Uruguay and Venezuela) to meet to discuss migration issues for the past ten years confirms the resolve of these governments to build a regional consensus on migration issues.  Conference decisions are adopted by consensus and are expressed in a Final Declaration, presented al the end of each Conference.

The SACM, which met for the first time in Buenos Aires in 2000, is the principal inter-governmental forum for political dialogue on international migration in South America.  Since then, annual meetings have been held in Santiago de Chile (2001); Quito (2002); Montevideo (2003); La Paz (2004); Asunción (2006); Caracas (2007); Montevideo (2008) and Quito (2009).

The SACM is organized with support from IOM, which is in charge of its permanent Technical Secretariat.

For more information, please contact:

Mariana Bocca
IOM Buenos Aires
Tel: +54 1 14.815.51.94
E-mail: mbocca@iom.int