Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All

Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families

Forty-first session

Summary record of the 609th meeting

Held at the Palais Wilson, Geneva, on Monday, 1 December 2025, at 10 a.m.

Chair:Ms. Diallo

Contents

Opening of the session

Opening statement by the representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights

Adoption of the agenda

The meeting was called to order at 10 a.m.

Opening of the session

The Chair declared open the forty-first session of the Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families.

Opening statement by the representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights

Mr. Korkeakivi (Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)) said that, during its forty-first session, the Committee would be considering the second periodic reports of Honduras, Indonesia and Mauritania. In addition, it would adopt a list of issues, under the traditional procedure, for Colombia as well as lists of issues prior to reporting, under the simplified procedure, for Albania and Uganda.

Together with the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, the Committee would also launch the general recommendation and general comment on guidelines for eradicating xenophobia towards migrants and others perceived as such, which reflected a comprehensive understanding of how xenophobia operated across societies and institutions and how it disproportionately affected migrants and persons perceived as migrants. With the general recommendation and general comment, the two Committees provided States and stakeholders with practical tools to dismantle discriminatory structures, foster inclusive societies and uphold the dignity and rights of all individuals. In doing so, they also advanced the realization of several Sustainable Development Goals, particularly the overarching commitment to “leave no one behind”.

The general recommendation and general comment were a welcome example of cooperation across mechanisms, which the Committee had already demonstrated with its general comment No. 6 (2024) on the convergent protection of the rights of migrant workers and members of their families through the Convention and the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, and with its joint general comment with the Committee on the Rights of the Child on the rights of children in the context of international migration.

The presence of the Chair of the Committee at a recent side event in New York organized by the Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, had helped to reinforce engagement and dialogue between the Committee and the mandate holder and had contributed to a more coordinated and human rights-based approach to migration governance. The Special Rapporteur had highlighted the increasing challenge of the “externalization of migration governance and its effect on the human rights”, whereby responsibility was being shifted away from destination countries through agreements with other States designed to restrict or prevent migration. Recognizing that externalization measures entailed a risk of human rights violations, the Special Rapporteur had made a range of concrete recommendations, including a call for human rights impact assessments to be conducted systematically and in advance. The recent OHCHR study on human rights monitoring in the context of migration, which had been submitted to the sixtieth session of the Human Rights Council in 2025, had also pointed to an urgent need for robust, systematic and comprehensive human rights monitoring across all aspects of migration and border governance.

He wished to commend the Committee for continuing to promote the ratification of the Convention and to work with States Parties, the Inter-Parliamentary Union, and civil society organizations to raise awareness about the important benefits that ratification yielded for States and rights holders alike. While reaching 60 ratifications in 2025 was a major achievement, much work remained to be done. He encouraged all States that had not yet done so to consider becoming party to the Convention, including those that had signed but not yet ratified.

The United Nations human rights system was facing serious challenges that risked undermining its ability to carry out its work. The ongoing liquidity crisis had placed severe constraints on treaty bodies, including the Committee, as shrinking resources prevented the full implementation of the mandates envisioned in core international human rights instruments. In 2025 alone, treaty bodies had lost over 30 per cent of their meeting time, causing major delays, including the postponement of numerous State party reviews. If the trend continued, the system risked reaching a breaking point. OHCHR continued to do its utmost to ensure that all treaty bodies could fulfil their mandates, including by highlighting the direct impact that resource limitations had on human rights protection on the ground.

Adoption of the agenda ( CMW/C/41/1 )

The agenda was adopted.

The meeting rose at 10.15 a.m.