Protecting Migrants’ Rights: the Role of Data

The Migrants Rights Database is a rigorous empirical account of laws protecting the human rights of all migrants and the cross-national implementation that helps them flourish. The database applies a novel instrument that permits the objective accounting of the laws protecting migrants’ rights enshrined in national legal frameworks. The indicators were initially developed through support of the Open Society Foundations and then piloted thanks to support from the World Bank’s KNOMAD partnership. Thanks to generous support from the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, the MRD now includes 36 country cases accounting for nearly 70 percent of the world’s current migrant stock and will be expanded to include 45 country cases in the coming years.

Moderator

• Dr. Vincent Chetail, Professor of International Law & Director of the Global Migration Centre, Geneva Graduate Institute

Presentation of the Migrants Rights Database

• Ian M. Kysel, Cornell Law School & Migrant Rights Initiative
• Dr. Justin Gest, George Mason University & Migrant Rights Initiative

Panel discussion: Protecting Migrants’ Rights: the Role of Data

• Prof. Felipe Gonzalez Morales, UN Special Rapporteur for the human rights of migrants (by video)
• Dr. Koko Warner, Director of the Global Data Institute, International Organization for Migration
• Prof. Maya Sahli-Fadel, Vice-Chair of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights; Special Rapporteur on Refugees, Asylum Seekers, Internally Displaced Persons and Migrants in Africa, African Union