Some 20 Women in Migration Network members converged in Geneva at the end of January for the 14th Global Forum on Migration and Development, or GFMD. The Summit included government delegations and stakeholders from various regions and civil society sectors. WIMN prepared key messages for this year’s GFMD, building on years of advocacy at the GFMD and on global migration issues, and focused on the thematic priorities within the central theme of the summit, “the impact of climate change on human mobility”. (See below for links to all of the documents.)
WIMN members had a full schedule, which also included an informal meeting with the new UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants, a WIMN-hosted Women’s Caucus, and meetings with government delegations. We also co-hosted a side-event, “Eliminating gender-based violence as vital to migration governance for resilience and social development”. Following the GFMD, a number of WIMN members participated the following week in the annual meeting of the UN Network on Migration.
WIMN delegates to the GFMD came from several member groups — including Alianza Americas; Bloque Latinoamericano sobre Migración; AFL-CIO, National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (NNIRR), Migrant-Rights.org, Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC); Public Services International (PSI), the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC); International Detention Coalition (IDC); Platform for International Cooperation for Undocumented Migrants (PICUM); Solidarity Center. A participant in WIMN’s grassroots leadership program (LIGA), the Centro de Atención a la Familia Migrante Indígena (CAFAMI), also attended.
Delegates participated in civil society preparatory sessions, co-organized side-events, and presented in various sessions of the program. WIMN member Vani Saraswathi of Migrant-Rights.org was been selected as the “Gender Rapporteur” to monitor and reflect on how issues of gender, as a cross-cutting, intersectional priority for civil society, emerges in the various aspects of the GFMD.
Read Vani Saraswathi’s reflections as Gender Rapporteur at the GFMD.
Summary Report of the
You can read and download WIMN’s Briefing Document (8 – 9 pages) here:
Briefing Document – Key Messages for an Intersectional Feminist Approach to Migration (English)
Documento informativo – Mensajes clave para un enfoque feminista interseccional de la migración (Español)
Messages clé pour une approche féministe intersectionnelle de la migration (Français)
Executive Summary (2 pages)
Key messages for an intersectional feminist approach to migration (English)
Mensajes clave para un enfoque feminista interseccional de la migración (Spanish)
Messages clé pour une approche féministe intersectionnelle de la migration (French)
(Arabic) الرسائل الرئيسية من أجل مقاربة نسوية متقاطعة للهجرة