Guatemala Asks UN To Form Eminent Panel To Study Migration Worldwide
New York, Sep 24 2008 7:10PM
Guatemala’s President proposed today that Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon set up a panel of eminent figures to investigate
the scope and effects of migration around the world, stressing that people who leave their homelands for other countries
have inviolable rights.
Álvaro Colom Caballeros told delegates at the General Assembly’s annual high-level debate that their countries should be
able to show the “same drive and devotion” to devising “an international structure that guarantees the fundamental
rights of migrants” as they do already towards the cause of free trade.
“If we globalize what’s material, I am convinced we are morally compelled to globalize what’s human to pave the road to
hope for millions of migrants in the world,” he said.
“With this idea in mind, I allow myself to suggest to the Secretary-General that the creation of a panel comprised of
former presidents from origin and recipient migrant countries to examine the nature, scope and consequences of the
migratory phenomenon, and to disseminate its findings during the next substantive session of the General Assembly."
The President said the free flow of labour migrants should take place as part of “a human movement to eliminate the
suffering of millions of human beings that simply seek opportunities of work and welfare.”
In his address, he also warned that social inequality, hunger and global warming pose just as big a threat to security
as more traditional causes, such as terrorism and organized crime, including illegal drug trafficking.
He urged renewed international commitment towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the set of eight
anti-poverty targets that world leaders pledged at a UN summit in 2000 to try to reach by 2015.
ENDS