Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All

Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families

Fourteenth session

Summary record (partial)* of the 165th meeting**

Held at the Palais Wilson, Geneva, on Friday, 8 April 2011, at 3 p.m.

Chairperson:Mr. El Jamri

Contents

Adoption of the annual report to the General Assembly

Any other business

Closure of the session

The discussion covered in the summary record began at 4.05 p.m.

Adoption of the annual report to the General Assembly

Draft report of the Committee to the General Assembly (CMW/C/14/CRP.1)

The Chairperson invited members to comment on the draft report of the Committee to the General Assembly.

Mr. Tall said that, in his capacity as a Committee member, he had attended activities to celebrate International Migrants Day in December 2010 in Dakar, organized by the United Nations in conjunction with the International Organization for Migration. He would like that information to be included in the report.

The Chairperson said that the information would be included and that, if there were no further comments, he would take it that the Committee wished to adopt the report.

It was so decided.

Any other business

The Chairperson, summing up the accomplishments of the fourteenth session, said that all agenda items had been covered except for the planned meeting with trade union representatives to discuss ways of enhancing trade unions’ input to the Committee’s work. It was hoped that the meeting could take place during the International Labour Conference in June 2011, or during the Committee’s fifteenth session. During that session, the Committee would also hold a day of general debate on the situation of non-documented migrant workers or those in an irregular situation and consider the possibility of preparing a general comment on that subject, to be adopted at a future session. He and Ms. Cubias Medina would attend the next inter-committee meeting of the human rights treaty bodies in June 2011.

Ms. Salim (International Catholic Migration Commission (ICMC)) expressed her support for the proposed day of general debate and general comment.

Ms. Jourdan (Association of World Citizens) asked whether the Committee had any plans to consider the increasingly frequent problem of migrant workers without work permits who had to abandon their children because they could not marry in their country of work. Their lack of access to preventive health care was also a widespread problem with implications for their children.

The Chairperson said that the problems facing non-documented migrant workers, including the important issue of health care, would be addressed during the planned day of general debate. As for the issue of expulsions resulting in the abandonment of children, the Committee recommended to States parties that they should respect the Convention’s provisions on protection of the unity of families of migrant workers, including when migrant workers were detained prior to expulsion.

Closure of the session

After the customary exchange of courtesies, the Chairperson declared the fourteenth session of the Committee closed.

The meeting rose at 4.25 p.m.