Golriz Ghahraman: NZ is in good company on UN migration pact

Green Party MP Golriz Ghahraman.

COMMENT by Golriz Ghahraman

Last month I called on the Minister of Foreign Affairs to support the Global Compact for Migration so that New Zealand could stand, as we have done before, for a global world order that recognises the importance of co-operation, human rights, and importantly, for the first time, the impact of climate change as a shared pressing challenge.

Yesterday the adoption of the compact marked an historic moment. Governments have finally recognised in a formal way that migrants too have fundamental human rights and that our policies must observe these in practice. They have committed to working together as a global community when it comes to addressing this global problem.

The compact is a non-binding agreement, which begins by reaffirming the sovereignty and rights of all nations to set immigration policy. What is new is the recognition of the vulnerabilities of migrants and the need to protect their human rights at all stages of the migration process. This is a global agreement to promote safe, orderly and regular migration. The alternative is the violent and shameful approach displayed right now by the US, and enabled by the Mexican Government to the "migrant caravan" seeking asylum.

From the Green perspective it is also a significant achievement that this international agreement recognises the drastic impact that climate change will have on global migration. World leaders need to start planning now to ensure the rights and dignity of people driven out of their homes by climate-related disasters are respected. The compact represents a platform to guide this conversation in the coming years.

Happily, the compact is now endorsed by the UN General Assembly, and well respected human rights and development agencies including Amnesty International and Oxfam.

Only a small number of countries, including Australia, the US, Hungary and Poland, have refused to endorse the compact. The first nation on that list is known for holding asylum seekers and refugees on prison islands described by the UN as amounting to torture, and the second is currently keeping asylum seeker and migrant children in cages.

Hungary has gone as far as to criminalise those who help migrants and refugees. So, New Zealand appears firmly on the right side of history on this one, united with the vast majority of our global community.

It was perplexing to note the strong knee-jerk response against New Zealand's engagement emanating from the National Party this past month. The Opposition went from vague fear-mongering against immigration to spreading very specific misinformation.

The suggestion was that this agreement would mean the United Nations would be able to set New Zealand's immigration policy. Given the agreement specifically reaffirms the international law relating to nationhood and sovereignty and is in fact non-binding, it was a callous campaign in line with the worst of populist rhetoric spread by Brexit's
"Leave" campaigners and the Trump Administration.

It was a credit to both that the Foreign Minister and the public held fast to legal truths about the compact and kept an eye on the real issues underlying our decision to join it.
It is important to note the compact is not focused on facilitating migration as a solution in and of itself at all. In fact, it marks a meaningful recognition by the global community that addressing unsustainable rates of migration means addressing its causes.

That means if migration is to be stabilised, governments must also address global economic inequality and insecurity, war, natural disaster, and environmental degradation.

This is a commitment to keep talking to one another, to strengthen the increasingly threatened rules-based global order, and to stand for human rights in the face of the cruelty that is made possible in their absence. I congratulate the minister and every world leader championing this historic collaboration.

* Golriz Ghahraman is a Green MP.