International Migration Law (IML), which is the international legal framework governing migration, is not covered by any one legal instrument or norm. Instead, IML is an umbrella term covering a variety of principles and rules that together regulate the international obligations of States with regard to migrants. Such broad range of principles and rules belong to numerous branches of international law such as human rights law, humanitarian law, labour law, refugee law, consular law and maritime law.

IOM works to increase knowledge and acceptance of the legal instruments that protect migrants’ rights, as well as the ratification and implementation status of these instruments. It also assists States in developing migration policies and legislation that conform to IML in order to manage migration more effectively and in a manner consistent with international law.

In order to more effectively carry out its work on IML, IOM has established the International Migration Law Unit.

Since there is no single instrument or norm covering all the relevant rights and duties of migrants, it is important to collect information on IML and frame it in an accessible and comprehensible way. IOM seeks to consolidate IML information and make it more easily accessible through legal research and its online migration law database. IOM also works to disseminate information on IML in order to spread awareness to academics, government policy makers, International Organizations (IOs) and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs).

The IML Unit consults with governments on migration legislation to make the legislation more effective and to bring it more in line with regional and international standards. The Unit also carries out training and capacity building activities on IML.

IOM's Objectives

 

IOM is dedicated to promoting awareness and understanding of IML in order to assist States in managing migration more effectively and humanely. IOM’s efforts on this behalf include:

• Training. Done on a regular basis and on request. The IML Unit has committed itself to informing individuals and governments on IML. The Unit conducts two annual training courses, one in Sanremo, Italy in collaboration with the International Institute of Humanitarian Law (IIHL) and the other in New York in collaboration with the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), with additional training seminars available at the regional or country level upon request.

  Training seminars cover, inter alia, human rights and migration, transnational criminal law, the rights of migrant detainees and international rules on detention, protection of groups at risk, international refugee law, and international labour law and the protection of non-nationals.

• Research.

• Direct Assistance to States and to Human Rights Mechanisms.

  1. Since 1998, IOM has been part of the Steering Committee for the Promotion of the Ratification of the UN Migrant Workers Convention, along with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), International Labour Organization (ILO), United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and a number of NGOs working on migration issues. In order to promote this treaty and other important IML instruments, IOM regularly collaborates with the Human Rights Treaty Monitoring Bodies, especially the Committee on Migrant Workers (CMW) and the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), and the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council. In particular, it works closely with the UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants. IOM also advises the European Court of Human Rights and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and the Human Rights Council.

  2. The Unit assists governments to develop and implement migration legislation and procedures consistent with applicable international and regional standards. The objective is to strengthen the capacity of governments to govern migration more effectively and consistent with the rule of law. In this context, the Unit offers advice and information to governments considering the ratification of relevant international or regional treaties and provides legal consultancy and revision of national migration legislation for individual governments at their request. It offers advice on Migration Law also to other actors.

 

Principal Beneficiaries

Participants in IOM’s training programme include government officials and members of IOs and NGOs.

Each year, in the IOM Annual Report, statistics are provided related to the implementation of MiGoF Principle 1 on Adherence to International Standards and Fulfilment of Migrants’ Rights.