Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families Concludes Forty-Second Session after Adopting Findings on Ecuador, the Gambia and[...]

The Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families this afternoon concluded its forty-second session after adopting concluding observations on the reports of Ecuador, the Gambia and Ghana on implementation of the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families.

The concluding observations will be made available on the webpage of the session in the coming days.

Prasad Kariyawasam, Committee Chair, in his closing remarks for the session, said that, as underscored in the opening statement for the session delivered on behalf of the Secretary-General, the Convention remained profoundly relevant in the current volatile global context. The Committee had demonstrated a profound awareness of the importance and urgency of implementing its mandate and addressing persistent and often widening protection gaps adversely affecting migrant workers and members of their families, in State parties and worldwide.

At the outset of the session, Mr. Kariyawasam said, the Committee members elected by acclamation a new Chair, three Vice-Chairs and a Rapporteur, reflecting members' commitment to consensus, as well as to equitable geographical rotation and gender sensitive representation.

Mr. Kariyawasam recalled that, during the session, the Committee engaged in constructive and interactive dialogues with the delegations of Ecuador, Ghana and the Gambia, and subsequently adopted concluding observations on their reports. This was the first engagement of the Government of the Gambia before the Committee since its ratification of the Convention. The Committee expressed its appreciation to these States' delegations for their active, in-person participation in constructive dialogues. The high-level composition of all three delegations was a manifestation of the importance accorded to their reporting obligations.

The Committee also adopted a list of issues for Lesotho and lists of issues prior to reporting for Guatemala and Guyana, and prepared and adopted a report evaluating its follow-up report on priority recommendations in relation to the second periodic report of Burkina Faso. Further, the Committee agreed on the list of States parties to be reviewed during its forty-third and forty-fourth sessions and identified the related Country Rapporteurs, Mr. Kariyawasam reported.

The Committee's work on the development of guidelines on the disappearance of persons in the context of migration was progressing steadily, Mr. Kariyawasam said. During the session, the Committee reviewed the valuable inputs received from a wide range of stakeholders on its draft guidelines. It would continue advancing this important initiative. In addition, on 8 June 2026, the Committee decided to consider the feasibility of developing a general comment on the impact of climate change on migration and the protection of the rights of migrants.

Mr. Kariyawasam also reported that the Committee had held in-depth discussions on possible strategies to advance the ratification campaign for the Convention. It welcomed that over two dozen Member States - encompassing both countries of origin and destination - had accepted recommendations to ratify the Convention during the fourth cycle of the Universal Periodic Review. The Committee strongly encouraged these States to translate their political commitments on this issue into concrete action. On 5 June 2026, the Committee decided to request the Working Group on the promotion of ratification of the Convention to develop an action plan to engage with States to advance ratification, including targeted measures to promote ratification, inter alia, by signatory States.

During the session, the Committee held valuable exchanges with representatives of international and national civil society organizations, national human rights institutions, the International Labour Organization, the World Health Organization, United Nations country teams, and human rights officers from the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. Mr. Kariyawasam thanked these persons for their valuable insights and reports in advance of the constructive dialogues.

The Committee, he said, also held a constructive exchange with the secretariat of the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions, which focused on ways to strengthen the effective engagement of national human rights institutions in the work of the Committee, with a view to enhancing the protection and promotion of the rights of migrant workers and members of their families. Further, the Committee held a useful exchange with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights' Migration and People on the Move Unit on the outcomes of the second International Migration Review Forum, held from 5 to 8 May 2026.

The Committee also received an informative briefing by the Permanent Observer of Council of Europe in Geneva on the protection of the rights of migrants within the Council of Europe framework, was briefed on intersessional activities promoting the Convention on Migrant Workers by members of the Committee, and adopted its annual report on the forty-first and forty-second sessions.

Mr. Kariyawasam said that the current international situation - characterised by escalating geopolitical upheavals, economic instability, and tightening immigration policies -had severely compromised the rights and protections available for migrant workers in the States parties to the Convention and globally. The situation had further compounded the negative effects of the increasing deregulation of labour markets in favour of corporate interests. Migrant workers faced heightened risks of wage theft, unsafe working conditions, and exploitative practices. This vulnerability was further magnified by a growing political rhetoric that criminalised irregular migrants, effectively driving undocumented workers into shadow economies where they were denied access to judicial remedies, basic social rights, safety and dignity.

Chronic resource constraints affecting the United Nations human rights treaty body system also continued to affect the Committee, hindering the robust oversight needed to promote rights of migrant workers in these difficult times. However, the Committee was enthusiastically working in tandem with the Office of the High Commissioner to arrest the widening human rights protection gap which affected migrant workers and members of their families.

In closing remarks, Mr. Kariyawasam thanked the Committee Experts and all persons who had contributed to the successful session.

The official dates of the forty-third session of the Committee have not yet been announced; they will be announced once confirmed on the Committee's website.

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CMW/26/05