Chapitre III - UNITAR

Foreword
The Berne Initiative, launched by Switzerland in June 2001 as a States-owned
consultative process, has enabled Governments from all world regions to
share their different policy priorities and interests in migration. It has offered
to Governments and other stakeholders in migration the opportunity of developing
a common orientation to migration management, based on notions of
cooperation, mutual understanding, partnership, comprehensiveness, balance
and predictability.
The process of the Berne Initiative is inspired by the following principles:
Effective migration management calls for comprehensive approaches
at all levels: national, regional and global
Migration remains largely within the sovereign realm of States
Dialogue and partnership between States enrich existing unilateral,
bilateral and regional approaches
Since the launch of the Berne Initiative at the International Symposium on
Migration in Berne, Switzerland in 2001, it was clear that the aspiration of the
Berne Initiative process would be the creation of an informal international
reference system or framework of guiding principles to facilitate the management
of migration. Several important milestones were on the way to realizing
this goal: (1) publication of an expert study taking stock of existing legal
norms on migration – Migration and International Legal Norms; (2) a thematic
compilation of significant international statements on migration emanating
from the various regional consultative processes on migration and other
migration conferences; and (3) the convening of a series of four regional consultations
over the course of 2004 allowing States and other migration stakeholders
from around the world to contribute to the development of the
International Agenda for Migration Management (IAMM). At the Berne II
Federal Office for Migration
Foreword
9