Law Commons^™

A Migrants' Bill Of Rights—Between Restatement And Manifesto, Gerald Neuman

International Migrants Bill of Rights Symposium

These comments first provide a general perspective on the nature of the proposed International Migrants Bill of Rights (IMBR) and then offer some specific observations on the current draft, in particular its provisions on the subject of equality or nondiscrimination, including but not limited to Article 2.

Avoiding Evasion: Implementing International Migration Policy, Justin Gest

International Migrants Bill of Rights Symposium

Despite the broadening range of international arbiters of global migration, the state—with its sovereign control of its territory and its subjection to the politics of its society—remains the only arbiter that oversees the actual interactions during which a proposed bill of rights would be followed. “As long as the nation-state is the primary unit for dispensing rights and privileges, it remains the main interlocutor, reference and target of interest groups and political actors, including migrant groups and their supporters.” This suggests that the normative persuasion and mobilization of even the most powerful non-state actors can only be in the ultimate …

The Most-Favoured Nation Principle, Equal Protection, And Migration Policy, Tomer Broude

International Migrants Bill of Rights Symposium

This article discusses the theoretical interaction between the economically grounded most-favoured nation (MFN) treatment principle and the human-rights based concept of equal protection of migrants. In the multilateral law of international trade, MFN is an article of faith that lays a valid claim to having significantly contributed to the success of the trade-liberalizing and welfare-enhancing role of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade /World Trade Organization (GATT/WTO). Above and beyond its trade-related economic roles, when it applies to individuals of different nationalities, the logic of MFN also appears to generally conform to fundamental principles of equal protection of the …

Soft Law And The Protection Of Vulnerable Migrants, Alexander Betts

International Migrants Bill of Rights Symposium

Since the 1980s, an increasing number of people have crossed international borders outside of regularized migration channels, whether by land, air or sea. Policy debates on these kinds of movements have generally focused on security to the neglect of a focus on rights. In a range of situations, though, irregular migrants, who fall outside of the protection offered by international refugee law and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), may have protection needs and, in some cases, an entitlement to protection under international human rights law. Such protection needs may result from conditions in the country of origin …

Protecting And Promoting The Human Right To Respect For Family Life: Treaty-Based Reform And Domestic Advocacy, Ryan Mrazik, Andrew I. Schoenholtz

International Migrants Bill of Rights Symposium

This article examines the right to respect for family life in international law, focusing on its underlying principles and explicit protections. The article identifies these legal norms so that drafters of international treaties, specifically the International Migrants Bill of Rights, and United States legal practitioners representing immigrant children can incorporate the right to respect for family life into their drafting and advocacy, thereby protecting and promoting this critical human right.

To encourage both high-level, international treaty-based reform and the grassroots domestic advocacy necessary to comprehensively protect and promote this right, this article provides specific ideas for incorporating the right to …

From Status To Agency: Defining Migrants, Avinoam Cohen

International Migrants Bill of Rights Symposium

Migrants share an intricate relationship with the law. Identifying a person as a migrant implies, in ordinary language, that she has crossed legally defined territorial boundaries. In legal terminology, invoking the term migrant usually alludes to a particular legal status that entails a specific set of rights, distinguished from those of the citizen. Acknowledging the role of law in identifying and classifying people that move across national frontiers, migrants appear as legal constructs, structured by and within the law. Regulatory mechanisms designed to direct and control migration are deeply intertwined with the phenomenon they strive to govern. In itself, this …

Extreme Vulnerability Of Migrants: The Cases Of The United States And Mexico, Jorge A. Bustamante

International Migrants Bill of Rights Symposium

This paper deals with the notion of vulnerability of migrants, with respect to the realities of two countries, the United States and Mexico. The vulnerability of migrants is understood as a heterogeneously imposed condition of powerlessness. This is based on the premise that migrants are inherently vulnerable as subjects of human rights from the point of their departure as they leave home to initiate their migration. That is, any human being is less vulnerable at home than after she leaves home to become a migrant. The same applies to a sociological extension of the notion of home--a community of origin. …

Reaffirming Rights: Human Rights Protections Of Migrants, Asylum Seekers, And Refugees In Immigration Detention, Eleanor Acer, Jake Goodman

International Migrants Bill of Rights Symposium

The International Migrants Bill of Rights (IMBR) addresses migrants’ rights in a variety of contexts, and this paper looks closely at some of the most crucial rights that apply to migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers who are held in immigration detention.

Migrants, refugees and asylum seekers are entitled to a broad range of rights protections. These protections are spelled out in the provisions of core human rights treaties and regional human rights conventions that apply to all people, as well as in the specific conventions relating to refugees and migrants. While States have the authority to regulate migration, their immigration …

Human Rights Of Migrants: The Dawn Of A New Era?, Ryszard Cholewinski

International Migrants Bill of Rights Symposium

The purpose of this article is to highlight a number of key legal and policy developments which have occurred since the turn of the twenty-first century and to reflect on how these have and may advance the protection of the human rights of migrants. This article is optimistic and forward-looking in tenor, although the generally positive developments discussed do not necessarily mean that abuses of migrants and violations of their rights are no longer taking place. Nonetheless, if ten years of relatively intense activity can be viewed as a sound measure of progress, there is some cause for optimism that …

International Migrants Bill Of Rights, Georgetown University Law Center, International Migrants Bill Of Rights Initiative

Georgetown Law Student Series

The International Migrants Bill of Rights (hereinafter IMBR) is the result of a two-year collaboration between students at the American University in Cairo, Georgetown University Law Center, and Hebrew University in Jerusalem. The IMBR is a dynamic blueprint for the protection of the rights of migrants, drawing from all areas of international law, including treaty law, customary international law, areas of State practice and best practices. The IMBR posits a group of rights that are “universal, interdependent and interrelated,” and that populate the continuum from hard to hortatory. Yet even as the result projects a framework for migrants’ rights that …

“To Remand, Or Not To Remand”: Ventura’S Ordinary Remand Rule And The Evolving Jurisprudence Of Futility, Patrick J. Glen

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

It is a foundational principle of administrative law that a reviewing court should not dispose of a petition for review or appeal on grounds not relied upon by the agency, and should not reach issues in the first instance not addressed administratively. In such circumstances, there is a strong presumption that the reviewing court should remand the case to the agency for further proceedings rather than reach out to decide the disputed issues. The United States Supreme Court explicitly extended operation of the “ordinary remand rule” to the immigration context in its 2002 decision in INS v. Ventura. Notwithstanding subsequent …

Rejecting Refugees: Homeland Security's Administration Of The One-Year Bar To Asylum, Andrew I. Schoenholtz, Philip G. Schrag, Jaya Ramji-Nogales, James P. Dombach

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Since 1980, the Refugee Act has offered asylum to people who flee to the United States to escape persecution in their homeland. In 1996, however, Congress amended the law to bar asylum – regardless of the merit of the underlying claim – for any applicant who fails to apply within one year of entering the United States, unless the applicant qualifies for one of two exceptions to the rule.

In the years since the bar was established, anecdotal reports have suggested that genuine refugees, with strong merits claims to asylum, have been rejected solely because of the deadline. Many scholars …