Panama - The UN Migration Agency (IOM) and the Latin American Parliament (Parlatino) are holding a High Level Parliamentary Dialogue on Migration in Latin America and the Caribbean today (09/06). The topic of the discussion is Realities and Commitments towards Global Compact.

This discussion is the main event of the Parlatino XXXIII General Assembly in Panama City with the main purpose of the meeting being to promote a discussion about the status and the development of a Global Compact for safe, orderly and regular migration, as well as to encourage parliamentary action on this topic. Additionally, a regional document will be formulated as input to establish the global compact.

Some 200 delegates are expected to attend, including Clarissa Azkoul, IOM Deputy Chief of Staff, and Kailash Satyarthi, a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate in 2014.

The regional dialogue on migration will bring together six panels, plenary sessions, and interactive round-tables, discussing topics such as the human rights of migrants, the impact of regular and irregular migration, international cooperation, global governance of migration and smuggling of migrants, and human trafficking. Other concerns to be addressed include the contributions of migrants and the diaspora to sustainable development, and migration due to climate change or armed conflict. 

Azkoul congratulated the members of Parlatino, in particular Blanca Alcalá, Mexican Senator and President of Parlatino, for leading the proposal to dedicate the General Assembly to migration and its global compact.

“The importance of involving Parliaments to the discussions and to the formulation of concrete proposals for the global compact is indisputable,” said Azkoul. “IOM extend their congratulations for this initiative and I would like to take this opportunity to reaffirm our will to build a long-term shared agenda with Parlatino.”

The Declaration for Refugees and Migrants, which was approved on 19 September 2016 in New York within the framework of the 70th first session of the United Nations, set in motion a process of intergovernmental consultations and negotiations, culminating in the planned adoption of the global compact for migration on the occasion of an intergovernmental conference on international migration that will take place in 2018.

For further information, please contact Jorge Gallo at IOM San José Regional Office. Tel: +506 2212-53-52, Email: jgallo@iom.int