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give a positive and helpful contribution. Therefore,
I changed to the Human rights group where I
found my perfect position on joining the working
sub-group on migration.
The aim of the Graduate Study Program is mainly
to introduce many young people from all over the
world to a deeper knowledge of the UN family and
activities but also to study a topic for two weeks
from different perspectives and in the end to
produce a final document. Our theme was
“Proposed New Ways and Means to Strengthen
the United Nations Capability for Collective
Action”.
Most of the course was agreeable, very
interesting and well organised but there were also
a few negative aspects.
Unfortunately, we had some practical problems to
deal with. One of them was that we had a lot of
free time to spend on searching documents and
on writing reports but not enough tools. We really
had to fight for access to the computers.
Another difficulty we had to overcome was the
coordination of the workgroup meetings. The
majority of the encounters were very late in the
afternoon when the participants were tired from
the long day and the terrible heat summer 2003,
or during lunchtime. This created many troubles
for joining together the single researches in one
document.
We all noticed that three weeks is too short a time
to complete a real team group. We started to
know each other and to organise the work in an
efficient way only by the end of the second week,
and given that in the third week we were very
busy finalising the article, we really did not have
the time to come close for the exchange of more
opinions and ideas.
It appears clear that a longer stay in Geneva
would probably create some practical obstacles
for hosts and organisation staff alike, given that
living costs in Geneva are high and that it must
not be easy in July-August to recruit international
officers willing to be “tortured” by a group of
curious and critical young people from all over the
world.
I will not attach the whole document we produced
during the programme but just the part of the
working under-group I participated.
DISCRIMINATION AGAINST REFUGEES AND MIGRANTS
Discrimination against refugees also remains constant dilemma addressed and combated by the United
Nations. In 1951, the Geneva Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees was adopted by UN Member
States. Since then a number of regional treaties have been added including the “Cartagena Declaration in
Latin America” and the treaty “Specific Aspect of Refugee problem in Africa”. These additions have created
different definitions of a “refugee” and thus directly impacted the human rights of refugees in different parts of
the world. New classifications of Internally Displeased People and Migrants have also emerged since the
original declaration. Therefore, considerations of their rights are often neglected under current legislation.
The themes to be considered are: rights to access and open borders with respect to the situation in the EU,
North Korea and Afghanistan; rights of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs); the right to voluntary return; and
the right of migrants.
The current situation
• It has now become very difficult for migrants to enter the EU due to visa requirements, rigorous
checks of entry papers by airlines staff, and the EU desire to strengthen border controls prior to the
accession of new states.
• Because of the mutual agreement on repatriation between North Korea and China, the Chinese
government has taken a rigorous border control and repatriation policy on North Korean refugees.
• The UK has introduced a policy of forced repatriation of Afghans to their home country in which
security, as well as economic and social stability, are not in place. IDPs living within Afghanistan
are unable to seek refugee status in the neighbouring countries of Iran and Pakistan due to policies
of border closure. The human security of IDPs living in Afghanistan border areas is still a major
concern that is not being adequately addressed.
• The rights of migrant workers were previously protected within national legal frameworks. The
Convention on Protection of Migrant Workers adopted by the UN entered into force in July 2003.
This placed the human rights of migrant workers on the international agenda.
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