1. We, parliamentarians from around the world, gathered in Rabat, at the invitation of the Parliament of the Kingdom of Morocco, commit ourselves to using our power fully to help implement the Global Compact on Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, which will be formally adopted in Marrakech on 10 and 11 December this year.
2. We express our appreciation to the Parliament of the Kingdom of Morocco for organising, together with the Inter Parliamentary Union, this parliamentary conference on migration and for hosting us in Rabat. We commend the efforts of the Kingdom of Morocco with regard to the implementation of its migratory policy as well as for initiatives taken namely by offering to the international community a platform for discussion and interaction on good practices such as the meetings in Rabat and the upcoming on in Marrakech.
3. We recognize the pivotal role that the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) has played in the last two years in bringing a parliamentary perspective to the discussions and negotiations that led to the identification and formulation of the 23 objectives contained in the Global Compact. We welcome in this regard the adoption by IPU Member Parliaments in October 2018 of the resolution entitled Strengthening inter-parliamentary cooperation on migration and migration governance in view of the adoption of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration.
4. As parliamentarians, we are convinced that the Global Compact provides a strong framework for concerted action to help ensure that migration becomes safe, orderly and regular. The Global Compact is relevant to all people and countries, as part of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, in so far as migration has become a global phenomenon.
5. We strongly believe in the Global Compact’s key message that the time for silos and isolated national migration policies is over. A holistic approach to migration requires more coordinated and harmonized strategies for targeted interventions. International cooperation is essential to this end. We will therefore work to strengthen inter-parliamentary cooperation in order to facilitate the harmonization of strategies, the exchange of good practices, the implementation of multilateral provisions, and to develop partnerships with other stakeholders, including civil society and international organizations, so that, together we can effectively implement the Global Compact.
6. In doing so, we also believe that it is important that migration should not be considered primarily through a security lens. It is also a development, human rights issue that calls for a whole-of-government and whole-of-parliament approach. This requires the development or fine-tuning of institutional capacities and the development at the national level of proper migration policies that are in sync with social, economic and environmental realities. As parliamentarians, we need to demand that, where absent, such policies be designed and implemented and that citizens and migrants themselves be involved in their design. The IPU and the international community should help those parliaments which currently lack the capacities to oversee the implementation of those policies.
7. In acknowledging the critical contribution that parliaments can and should make to the implementation of the Global Compact, we commit to demonstrating political leadership and redoubling our efforts to ensure that migration is governed properly and with respect for human dignity, in particular by:
Protecting migrants, particularly those in vulnerable situations, through the ratification and implementation of relevant international human rights treaties and ILO Conventions, and through the use of parliamentary tools to hold our governments to account for their action or inaction to uphold these rights;
By gathering more evidence and encouraging policies, based on balanced facts and views on migration, which favour the shared responsibility of understanding and mutual respect between migrants and host societies, as well as the integration of migrants into society. To this end, we must insist on the collection and use of reliable and disaggregated data; it also demands that we guarantee the adoption of appropriate laws to protect against xenophobia, racism, intolerance and other forms of discrimination, and to report any cases of transgression when they occur.
Turning migration into a “choice”, not a “necessity” by tackling the drivers of forced migration, including extreme poverty, poor governance and climate change, and acting collectively to address efficiently the smuggling of migrants and trafficking of persons; similarly, this requires us to work towards to enhancing the pathways for regular migration and hence to enlarge the “choice” of migrants to seek a better future elsewhere;
8. We commit ourselves to working within our parliaments to design and implement a “parliamentary plan of action on migration” by the end of 2019 that operationalizes the commitments contained in the aforesaid IPU resolution of October 2018, the Global Compact as well as State obligations under international human rights law and to report to the IPU on progress in 2021. We also commit to contributing to the International Migration Review Forum, to which the Global Compact refers, with a view to discussing and sharing progress on the implementation of all aspects of the Global Compact, and to integrating the objectives set out in the Global Compact in our efforts to fulfil the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.