DATE / TIME:

2017•06•22    13:15 - 14:45

Location:

New York

UNU Panel Series on Academic Thinking on Migration: Addressing Women’s Rights in a Global Compact on Migration

UN Headquarters
Conference Room 7

1:15 p.m. – 2:45 p.m.
Thursday, 22 June 2017

All are welcome. Please RSVP individually by 18 June

***
In an age of unprecedented human mobility within and between countries, women are migrating more frequently for work and other reasons, to more destinations, and in greater numbers than ever before. A Global Compact for Safe, Regular and Orderly Migration should acknowledge women’s agency and the immense contributions made by migrant women to sustainable development and social change in countries of origin, transit and destination.

This multi-disciplinary panel seeks to identify actions and strategies that member states and other stakeholders can take to promote and protect women’s human rights in migration governance, and in particular the global compact for migration. The panel will also identify interventions that enable or constrain women’s enjoyment of their human rights, both among those who migrate and those who stay behind.

Panellists will reflect on how states can best develop gender-responsive, human rights-based migration policies which recognize the agency of women in migration, promote their empowerment and leadership and moves away from addressing migrant women primarily through a lens of victimhood.

Departing from the essential recognition of migrant women as motors of development for the societies they bridge, panellists will consider questions such as: How can states ensure that policies, legal frameworks, and programmes address gender-based discrimination and violence against migrant women in their development and implementation? What are the measures, conditions and mechanisms in which migration contributes the most positively to the lives of women who move and who stay behind, for example through access to decent work, public services and social protection? In what ways can fair and dignified working conditions be assured for women migrant workers, particularly those working in sectors that are undervalued and susceptible to exploitation?

Panellists:
• Ms Monica Corona, Former UN Women Coordinator on Labour and Human Rights of Women Migrant Workers, JASS (Just Associates) Board of Directors
• Dr Francisco Cos Montiel, Senior Research Officer at the UNU Institute for Globalization, Culture and Mobility (UNU-GCM)
• Dr Jenna Hennebry, Associate Professor at Balsillie School of International Affairs and Director of the International Migration Research Centre (IMRC)
• Dr Annabelle Wlikins, Research Fellow, WORKANDHOME project at the University of Southampton, Department of Geography and Environment

Chairs:

• Dr Purna Sen, Director, Policy Division, UN Women
• Dr James Cockayne, Head of the United Nations University (UNU) Office in New York

*This event is part of the United Nations University (UNU) ‘Panel Series on Academic Thinking on Migration’, convened by the UNU Office in New York (UNU-ONY) and the UNU Migration Network. Against the backdrop of thematic consultations feeding into negotiations for a Global Compact on Safe, Regular and Orderly Migration, UNU is convening this series to help diplomatic communities in New York engage with the latest academic research and thinking on relevant migration policy issues.