PRESS RELEASE No.  12


 MANILA, Philippines, Oct. 29—President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo today urged for the ratification of the United Nations  Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families.
 
In her keynote address before the 2nd Global Forum on Migration and Development at the Philippine International Convention Center in Pasay City, President Arroyo called on all countries which have not yet done so to ratify the Convention which would serve as an instrument that provides a necessary universal basic standard to protect the human rights of both documented and undocumented migrant workers.
 
“We call for fundamental global reform. To that end, we look upon the United Nations for leadership. We urge all countries which have not yet done so to ratify the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families,” the President told the delegates and representatives from 163 countries that attended the two-day forum.
 
The Convention was adopted and opened for signature, ratification and accession by the General Assembly in December 1990. 
 
As of  October 2005, 33 States had ratified or acceded to the Convention namely: Algeria, Azerbaijan,  Belize, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Ghana, Guatemala, Guinea, Honduras, Kyrgyzstan, Lesotho, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Mali, Mexico, Morocco, Peru, Philippines, Senegal, Seychelles, Sri Lanka, Syrian Arab Republic, Tajikistan, Timor-Leste, Turkey, Uganda and Uruguay .

The Convention seeks to play a role in preventing and eliminating the exploitation of migrant workers throughout the entire migration process.
 
In particular, it seeks to put an end to the illegal or clandestine recruitment and trafficking of migrant workers and to discourage the employment of migrant workers in an irregular or undocumented situation.  

 The President said that instead of viewing migrants as depersonalized movable components of globalization, or worse, as inconvenient necessities,  “we must embrace them as human beings who contribute to our essential well-being in this age of vast movement and change.”
 
“ We must prepare them for – and make them full partners in – our world of developmental, democratic and demographic transformation,” she said. 
 

The Chief Executive also urged the 163 representatives and delegates to the Global Forum to work together to protect the migrant workers in times of financial and economic crisis, as the world is experiencing now.
 
“All eyes may be glued on the world’s stock markets, but we must never lose sight of the often unseen impact of the global credit crunch on the long term needs of the poor, including the migrant poor,” she added.
 
She pointed out that it is the duty of the governments, the United Nations, all international organizations and global civil society to gather their collective will, their joint resources, and their common efforts to raise the migrant workers up.
 
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo preceded President Arroyo in addressing the participants of the 2nd Global Forum for Media and Development at the PICC in Pasay City.