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The Centre for the Study of Global Human Movement

 
GCM Commentary: Objective 8: Save lives and establish coordinated international efforts on missing migrants

Blog post written by Syd Bolton and Catriona Jarvis (The Last Rights Project) and forms part of a series of blog posts analysing the final draft (objective by objective) of the UN’s Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration.

 

In summary, Objective 8 of the Global Compact for Migration contains three new elements: to save lives and prevent deaths and injury; to identify the missing and the dead; and to provide assistance to their families.

Objective 8 cannot be read in isolation from the rest of the Compact but space does not permit such an analysis here. For the purpose of this commentary we restrict ourselves to the Objective itself and the context in which it is framed, namely the Preamble to the Compact and the underpinning New York Declaration, which offers succinct clarity as to the concerns it seeks to address:

Refugees and migrants in large movements often face a desperate ordeal. Many take great risks, embarking on perilous journeys, which many may not survive…We are determined to save lives. Our challenge is above all moral and humanitarian… (New York Declaration, paras 9 and 10).

Full blog post here

 

Acknowledgements:

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