Mandate

In its resolution 53/24 of 13 July 2023, the Human Rights Council requested the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) to convene a half-day intersessional panel discussion on avenues to prevent and address human rights violations and abuses against migrants in transit and to ensure access to justice for victims and family members, including through monitoring at international borders, highlighting best practices and challenges in this regard, and to ensure the meaningful participation of migrants and their family members. The Human Rights Council furthermore requested OHCHR to prepare a summary report on the panel discussion and to submit the report to the Human Rights Council at its fifty-seventh session and to the General Assembly at its seventy-ninth session.

Objectives

The intersessional panel discussion aimed to:

• Highlight challenges and promising practices to prevent and address human rights violations and abuses against migrants in transit and ensure access to justice for victims and their family members, including through monitoring at international borders.
• Encourage collaboration between States and all relevant stakeholders to develop whole-of-government and whole-of-society strategies and concrete solutions for promoting, protecting and fulfilling the human rights of migrants in transit and overcoming barriers that prevent them from acceding to justice.
• Emphasize the importance of establishing and implementing effective accountability mechanisms to ensure that perpetrators of human rights violations and abuses against migrants are held accountable and that justice is ensured for victims and their families.
• Seek recommendations from States and other stakeholders on how the Human Rights Council can enhance protection of the human rights of migrants in transit and to ensure access to justice for victims and their family members.

Format

The panel was open to the participation of representatives of Member States, international organizations, human rights mechanisms, national human rights institutions, civil society organizations, academia, migrants, their family members, and other relevant stakeholders.
Participants were encouraged to intervene in an interactive way, through questions, comments and sharing of experiences, promising practices and challenges as well as suggested recommendations on the way forward, with a view to stimulating a constructive and inclusive debate.
The event was held online and in English, with no interpretation. 

Summary report

Summary report of the intersessional panel discussion on the human rights of migrants in transit (TBC) 

Documentation

Concept Note

Statements

Opening remarks

• Mr. Volker Türk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
• Mr. Joel Hernandez Undersecretary for Multilateral Affairs and Human Rights in Mexico

First session: preventing of human rights violations and abuses against migrants in transit

Panelists:

• Mr. Pablo Ceriani Cernadas, member of the Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families (CMW).
• Ms. Almudena Puig, Legal and Humanitarian Affairs Advisor of Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF).
• Ms. Francesca Bocchini, Advocacy Manager – Humanitarian Affairs at EMERGENCY. 

Plenary Discussion of the first session:

• Human Rights Watch (HRW)
• Southern Border Communities Coalition (SBCC)

Second session: addressing human rights violations and abuses against migrants in transit and access to justice for victims and their family members

Panelists:

• Ms. Michele Levoy, Director of Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants (PICUM).
• Ms. Claudia Interiano, Regional Coordinator of Transnational Research of Fundación para la Justicia.
• Mr. Gehad Madi, UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants.

Plenary Discussion of the second session:

• Luxembourg
• Lithuania
• IOM
• Research Centre on Asylum and Migration (IGAM)
• Border Violence Monitoring Networks (BVMN)
• Quaker UN Office (QUNO)