As part of the Refugee Law Initiative’s blog series exploring the implementation of the Global Compact for Migration (GCM), GDP Researcher Izabella Majcher addresses Objective 21 (“Cooperate in facilitating safe and dignified return and readmission, as well as sustainable reintegration.”) Majcher proposes focusing on six indicators, which draw from the provisions of binding international treaties, including the Convention against Torture (CAT), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), and the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families (ICRMW), taking into account authoritative interpretations of these conventions by their official monitoring bodies. The indicators include the following six commitments:
- Commitment to uphold the prohibition of a return to a real risk of serious human rights violations: The principle of non-refoulement (including the prohibition of indirect refoulement) (CAT, art.3(1); ICCPR, arts.6-7)
- Commitment to uphold the prohibition of collective expulsion: Individual assessment (including in the context of accelerated procedures) (ICCPR, art.13; ICRMW, art.22(1))
- Commitment to guarantee due process, individual assessment, and effective remedy: Procedural safeguards (ICCPR, art.2(3); ICRMW, art.22)
- Commitment to facilitate safe and dignified return: Priority to voluntary return (SRHRM’s Study on return, §87; ILC’s Draft articles, art.21(1))
- Commitment to facilitate safe and dignified return: Regulation of forced return (ICCPR, art.6-7; CAT, art.16)
- Commitment to duly receive returning nationals: Prohibition of penalisation of “irregular emigration” (ICCPR, art.12)
