The world gets smarter when people move
Published Date: Thursday, Aug 01, 2013
24 years ago the whole world celebrated the falling of walls. Today, unfortunately, walls are coming back up. We see the criminalization of migrants and militarization at borders, this is what one speaker mentioned in the recently concluded United Nations General Assembly. The UN General Assembly brought together civil society leaders and networks from around the world to New York on 15 July to present their experience and recommendations to governments in Interactive Hearings regarding international migration and development.
More than 300 representatives of grassroots, regional and international civil society organizations met with 100 governments, UN agencies and other international organizations in the Hearings ahead of the High-level Dialogue on International Migration and Development (HLD) that UN Member States will be holding at the UN on 3-4 October, seven years after the first HLD in September 2006.
The meeting strongly emphasised on the need for collaboration and new partnerships, between civil society, businesses and governments, at local, national and regional levels to build capacity and awareness on strengthening the implementation of migrant’s rights. All the UN Member States were urged to recognize migration in a positive phenomenon and beneficial for the countries rather than a threat as it accelerate development and provide scope for individual as well as community to move upward.