Colombia - With the theme Human Mobility with Dignity, and with the support of IOM Colombia, the First International Conference on Human Rights and Migration was held in Bogota with national and international migration experts.

In a country that has seen mass migration and internal displacement of its population in recent decades, largely due to the intensification of the illegal armed conflict, the conference focused on effectively linking human rights and migration and human mobility in order to influence public policy, ways to reduce the gap between the coverage of human rights involved in the international context and the rights enjoyed by the majority of migrant workers in the host country.

The event was opened by Colombia’s Foreign Minister, María Ángela Holguín, who welcomed migration experts including Miguel Pajares, President of the Catalan Commission for Refugee Assistance; Pedro Mouratian, Comptroller of Argentina’s National Institution Against Discrimination, Xenophobia and Racism of Argentina; Marc Rosenblum, Deputy Director of the Migration Policy Institute of the United States; Sergio Bueno Aguirre, Director of Migración Colombia; and Diego Beltrand, IOM Regional Director for South America.

Sergio Bueno, Director of Migración Colombia  said: “We thank IOM for becoming a partner that provides expert and technical knowledge to better understand migration processes and for developing capacity building initiatives,  such as this conference, which enables cooperation that will result in initiatives to promote human mobility with dignity.”

Migración Colombia presented its human rights policy, Red Migrante or Migrant Network, which emerged as a forum for communication and coordination between civil society and public and private institutions, both national and international, in order to guarantee and promote the rights of the migrant population in Colombia.

Miguel Pajares, President of the Catalan (Spain) Commission for Refugee Assistance, explained asylum and refugee in Europe; while the Comptroller for the National Institution against Discrimination, Xenophobia and Racism of Argentina, Pedro Mouratian, described the integration and anti-discrimination policies for migrants who reside in Argentina, particularly those from other parts of Latin America.

IOM’s Regional Director for South America, Diego Beltrand, presented the current status of migration and human rights in South America and confirmed that: “IOM considers it necessary to strengthen efforts aimed at achieving effective application of international human rights instruments and at improving protection systems for migrants’ rights at a national level.”

Participants said the Conference established “a bridge between international migration policies and human rights policies”.

As Colombia has begun moving towards peace and reconciliation  in the past few years, international cooperation programs and public policies are working together to improve the living conditions of all Colombians, especially victims of the armed conflict and ex-combatants as they to reintegrate into civilian life. 

Over the last 50 years, Colombia has endured an internal armed conflict with guerrilla and paramilitary groups that has left more than 220,000 people dead (including 180,000 civilians) according to the National Center for Historical Memory. As a result, the national government has been negotiating and establishing transitional justice mechanisms since 2003, with the aim of achieving lasting peace. These mechanisms include provisions for the disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration of different illegal armed groups.

For more information please contact

Daniel Fernandez
IOM Colombia
Email: dfernandez@iom.int