From the Global Commission on International Migration to the Global Compact for Migration

The Global Commission on International Migration: Lead-up and outcome 

Building on international cooperation that can be traced back to the end of the First World War, the 1994 Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo devoted a chapter to international migration. Among other things, that chapter encouraged more cooperation and dialogue between countries.²¹ Following up on the chapter, three surveys were sent by the United Nations to its Member States in 1995, 1997 and 1999, to gather views on a possible international conference on international migration; however, a number of governments expressed serious reservations about convening such a conference.²² 

Several dialogues and initiatives were instrumental in building momentum and confidence towards greater action at the global level in the 2000s and early 2010s, including the Global Migration Group (GMG) as a key United Nations interagency mechanism.²³ The beginning of the century marked a turning point in the attitude of States towards international cooperation on migration, resulting in a remarkable acceleration of progress: the first Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants was appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council in 1999; the Berne Initiative and the regular IOM forum called the International Dialogue on Migration were launched in 2001; in his 2002 report on strengthening the United Nations, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan identified migration as a United Nations priority;²⁴ and in May 2003 the final report of the United Nations Commission on Human Security stated that “a high-level and broad-based commission should explore available options and areas of consensus, including alternative institutional arrangements” in relation to global migration governance.²⁵ These changes happened at a time when economists and international financial institutions shed light on the previously underestimated positive effect of migration and remittances on development.²⁶ 

In December 2003, together with a number of governments, the Secretary-General launched the Global Commission on International Migration (GCIM). While the Commission carried out its tasks in full independence, and commissioners and co-chairs acted in their personal capacity, Member State involvement was important to its success and impact, including through Regional Consultative Processes on migration (RCPs).²⁷ 

The GCIM was composed of 19 members, drawn from all regions and bringing together a wide range of migration perspectives and expertise. Its three-fold mandate outlined three objectives.²⁸ First, as the first-ever global panel on international migration, it aimed to place international migration on the global agenda. Second, it was tasked with analysing gaps in current policy approaches to migration. Third, it was asked to present recommendations on how to strengthen national, regional and global governance of international migration, translating the complex reality and politics of international migration into principles for action that would reflect shared objectives and a common vision for all United Nations Member States. 

The commission adopted a broad consultative approach to carry out its tasks, organizing five regional hearings, and commissioning 8 regional and 13 thematic reports as well as 56 papers.²⁹ The final report of the Global Commission, called “Migration in an interconnected world: New directions for action”, included six principles of action, supported by a set of recommendations. Each principle had a dedicated chapter elaborating its importance and key recommendations (see Table 1). The governance chapter of the GCIM report highlighted that good migration governance at the national level is a basis for more effective bilateral and multilateral cooperation between States, and it identified four key challenges associated with migration governance at the national level: policy coherence; interministerial coordination; capacity and resources; and cooperation with other States. As we will see in the following sections, these remain key challenges for many States worldwide. 

Migration governance after the Global Commission on International Migration 

About fifteen years passed between the launch of the GCIM in 2003 and the adoption of the Global Compact for Migration in 2018, and almost two decades between the launch of the GCIM and that of the IMRF in 2022. During this period, several global processes contributed to current global migration governance. Figure 1 presents a timeline of some key events and frameworks, though it should be noted that not all international frameworks gathered universal support, and that the figure does not represent key processes such as international dialogues on migration, RCPs and IOM Councils that prepared the way for, and fed into, the events shown.³⁰ Whether within the United Nations system or outside of it, these key processes played an instrumental role in setting the agenda on migration at the global level.³¹ Migration and its governance has also been shaped by a number of technological (“fourth industrial revolution“), geopolitical and environmental transformations.³²