Switzerland - IOM’s 107th Council concluded yesterday (8/12) in Geneva with the presentation of a McKinsey Global Institute report: People on the Move: Migration’s Impact on Individuals and Economies and a Migrants Voices session, featuring among others, Luis Salinas, producer of the film The Golden Dream (Mexico, 2013), which was screened earlier this week in Geneva as part of IOM’s first Global Migration Film Festival.

On Monday, President of the 71st Session of the United Nations General Assembly, Peter Thomson, stressed the increasing need for IOM and its work during the current global climate in his keynote address at the opening of the Council – the first since the agency joined the United Nations earlier this year.

In another keynote address, on Wednesday, the President of Malta, Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca, called for a shared commitment among nations to safeguard fundamental human rights, uphold human dignity and promote a global social solidarity approach especially in response to the current challenges, especially relating to migration.

President Coleiro Preca referred to the over 350,000 migrants and refugees who have arrived in Europe by sea and the over 4,600 who have died or gone missing in the Mediterranean so far this year. 

“In light of these facts we must respond even more passionately to the arguments of those individuals who profess that walls and fences are the only way to deal with growing numbers of vulnerable people,” said President Coleiro Preca.

Having recently visited Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan and met with families there, President Coleiro Preca added: “I would like to reiterate the need for governments, authorities and international organisations to assert the importance of human rights at every opportunity. It is by witnessing the struggles of such families risking all to cross the Mediterranean in search of a better life for themselves that I was myself changed.”

The 107th Council also marked the 65th anniversary of the Organization’s founding on 5 December 1951. It is the highest authority of IOM and meets for one regular session annually. Its main functions include determining policy, reviewing reports, approving and directing the activities of the Executive Committee and the Director General, and reviewing and approving the programme, budget, expenditure and accounts of the Organization.

You can watch President Coleiro Preca’s keynote address here.

Edited highlights of the four days can be found on IOM’s YouTube Channel and social media channels (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat – search UN Migration).

For further information please contact IOM HQ. Azzouz Samri, Tel: +41 22 717 94 68, Email: asamri@iom.int  or Leonard Doyle, Tel: + 41 79 285 71 23, Email: ldoyle@iom.int