A/68/283
in the construction and operation of detention centres for migrants is of great
concern to the Special Rapporteur, who has already made his views clear on the
utility of migration detention (see A/HRC/20/24).
60. IOM is also involved in other aspects of migration, such as programmes on
migrants’ health and anti-trafficking, and it has developed migrants’ rights training
programmes for stakeholders. As IOM is project-based and its work donor-driven,
its agenda is largely decided by its member States. The Special Rapporteur has met
with IOM staff, both at headquarters and in the field, who take the human rights of
migrants very seriously and do good and important work in that regard. However,
the mandate and funding of IOM pose structural problems with regard to fully
adopting a human rights framework for its work: both would need to be revised if
the organization is to become a key player in the promotion and protection of the
human rights of migrants.
61. The fact that the mandate of IOM is not supportive of human rights is of
concern for the whole United Nations system, as IOM is part of the Global
Migration Group and the United Nations country teams in many countries and is
often mistakenly believed, including by migrants themselves, to be a United Nations
agency.
3.
Governance at the regional level
62. The unprecedented level of international migration in recent years, coupled
with the lack of a global framework on migration, has contributed to enhanced
activity at the regional level, including migration-related agreements within regional
organizations or economic communities. Another increasingly used instrument at the
regional level are regional consultative processes on migration.
(a)
Regional organizations: focus on the European Union
63. Economic communities all over the world have some form of agreement or
intention on the free movement of people within their region. This includes the
Economic Community of West African States, the Commonwealth of Independent
States and the Common Market of the South (MERCOSUR). The European Union,
with its 28 member States, has the most elaborate system of all the regional
economic communities and thus provides one of the most developed examples of
regional migration governance.
64. The Treaty of Rome provided the right to free movement of workers within the
European Economic Community, thus recognizing the economic benefits of free
movement. The European Union’s expansion in 2004, including to Eastern Europe,
proved that free movement is also possible for countries with different levels of
economic development, enhancing the benefits of mobility for all concerned.
65. Since its beginnings, the European Union has expanded considerably, both in
terms of number of member States and mandate. With the entry into force of the
1999 Treaty of Amsterdam, migration and asylum policies including the Schengen
acquis (the creation of a common external border with free movement inside the
border) were officially incorporated into the legal framework of the European Union.
66. The European Union makes a distinction between European Union nationals,
who have freedom of movement inside the whole territory and are thus not
considered migrants, and “third-country nationals”. Several European Union
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