[EN] African Commission 50th Session: African NGOs demand action on migrants' rights

[JSF-JWB Migrants]

The French version was sent in a separate email. The Spanish version will follow.

La version en français a été envoyé dans un autre email. La version en espagnol suivira

La versión en francés fue enviado en un otro email. La version en español seguira.

[ENGLISH]

 

JUSTICE SANS FRONTIERES POUR LES MIGRANTS ET MIGRANTES

JUSTICE WITHOUT BORDERS FOR MIGRANTS

JUSTICIA SIN FRONTERAS PARA LOS Y LAS MIGRANTES

 

Contact:
Serges Demefack, jsfj...@gmail.com

 Until 29 Octobre 2011: (+220) 676 2153

 

Press Release

 

On the opening of the 50th Session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights 

 

African Civil Society Organizations urge action on « dizzying increase » of violations of migrants’ rights

 

 

Banjul, 24 Octobre 2011 – The Forum of African NGOs before the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights  (ACHPR) adopted on 21 october 2011, a resolution on the human rights of refugees, asylum seekers, migrants and displaced persons, which criticized the « dizzying increase » of violation of migrants’ rights, and called for action by the ACHPR, the Special Rapportuer on Refugees, Asylum Seekers, Displaced Persons and Migrants in Africa, and African governments.

 

The Forum of African NGOs, which brought together over 200 organizations from civil society from all over the African continent, urged the adoption of measures including :

§       An African convention on the rights of migrants, at the same level as those for refugess and displaced persons in Africa

§       An adequate strategy at the continental level to respond to the needs of African countries in the face of the globalization of migrants ;

§       A consolidated and integrated approach by African states, that refuses European migration policies including readmission clauses which have become more and more recurrent in economic cooperation accords of the EU/ACP ;

§       Une Approche concertée et intégrée des Etats africains, refusant  les politiques migratoires européennes notamment la clause de réadmission qui devient de plus en plus récurrente dans les accords de coopération économique tel l’accord UE/ACP ;

 

The Forum of African NGOs in Banjul is a special mechanism that takes place 3 days before the work of the African Commission. It permits African organizations to present the sectoral, national, and regional human situation to the African Commission. In the event of adoption by the African Commission, the decisions taken by the Forum are submitted to member states of the African Union for implementation.

 

In the moment when the resolutions were being transmitted to the African Commission, which meets from 24 October 2011, members of the Justice Without Borders for Migrants network stated : 

 

Mr. Ousmane DIARRA, President of Justice Without Borders for Migrants (JWBM) and of the Malian Association of Deportees (Association Malienne des Expulsés – AME), considers that « JSFM finds great important in this, because the hopes are great for migrants for the protection of  their rights, and respect for international conventions on human rights. »

 

Mr. Amadou Mbow, Vice President of JWBM and Executive Secretary of the Mauritanian Association of Human Rights (AMDH), stated that for him, the adoption of the resolution « consolidates all the work that civil society organizations have done to give greater visibility to vulnerable persons. »

 

Mr. El Kbir LEMSEGUEM, Moroccan lawyer and representative of GADEM to JWBM in Banjul considered the adoption of the resolution as the hope of seeing an «instrument made by Africans for Africans, which is just, and takes into consideration the extreme vulnerability of migrants and the interests of their countries. »

 

Maître El Kbir Lemseguem, Avocat au Barreau du Maroc et représentant du GADEM aux assises de JSFM à Banjul qui trouve en l’adoption de la résolution un espoir de voir un « instrument fait par les africains pour les africains, équitable, et qui prend en considération et l’abject vulnérabilité des migrants et les intérêts de leurs pays.»

 

JWBM is a new transnational network in West and North Africa and Europe, which launched an initiative this year to focus attention on and urge action on the mounting violations of migrants rights, within the Forum of African NGOs and the ACHPR. In its preparatory work, JWBM organized a strategy meeting on 17 October 2011 which led to the creation of a Sub-group on Migranrs Rights within the Working Group on Refugees, Asylum Seekers, Migrants and Displaced Persons, followed by a working session on 18 October that developed the draft text which led to the final resolution. JWBM also organized a presentation of organizations from Mali, Senegal, Morocco, and Nigeria to provide information about the situation of migrants’ rights on the ground.

The draft resolution was submitted to the delegates at the Forum of African NGOs by the Working Group on Refugees, Asylum Seekers,  Displaced Persons and Migrants, for adoption on 21 October 2011. The points of the resolution was embraced  by the Forum of African NGOs without any amendment. The work of the WG was facilitated by the Honorable Madame Kayitesi Zainabo Sylvie, Commissioner of the ACHPR and Special Rapporteur on Refugees, Asylum Seekers, Displaced Persons and Migrants, and Mr. Sadikh Niass, coordinator of the Working Group. The Working Group is a space for reflection bringing together groups that defend the rights of these groups before the ACHPR.

 

 

The resolution can be downloaded from the JWBM website :

 

Français : http://www.jsf-jwb-migrants.org/ENG/index_eng.html

Anglais : http://www.jsf-jwb-migrants.org/FRA/index_fr.html

 

 

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Justice Sans Frontières pour les Migrants et Migrants
Justice Without Borders for Migrants
Justicia Sin Fronteras para los y las Migrantes
jus...@jsfjwb.org
www.jsf-jwb-migrants.org