The Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM)

1.1 What is the Global Compact for Migration?

The Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM) is a UN framework on migration. It is also known as the Marrakech Compact on Migration.

Its text says it aims at cooperation on international migration in all its dimensions. The Associated Press (AP), a news agency, calls it the first international document on the issue.

1.2 Where and when was it agreed?

• 10 and 11 December 2018: an Intergovernmental Conference met in Marrakech, Morocco.
• 19 December 2018: the UN General Assembly endorsed the Compact in resolution 73/195.
• 2022: the first review forum was due, and then every four years.

1.3 Is it only about refugees?

No. The Compact says refugees and migrants are distinct groups under separate legal frameworks. Only refugees get the special protection of refugee law. The Compact refers to migrants.

2.1 What were the two counts?

At Marrakech, 164 Member States adopted the Compact by acclamation. That was on 10 December 2018.

On 19 December the General Assembly endorsed it by 152 votes to 5, with 12 abstentions. UN News and AP give the same tally.

2.2 Who voted no?

AP names five: the United States, Hungary, Israel, the Czech Republic and Poland. The UN has 193 members. By our arithmetic, 24 did not vote.

So the idea that “all the countries of the UN” adopted it is wrong. Neither count reaches 193.

3.1 What does the text say about its force?

The Compact calls itself a non-legally binding, cooperative framework. It builds on the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants.

UN News and AP both say the same. UN News adds that the Compact came out of a long negotiation process.

3.2 What holds it together, then?

The text says its authority rests on consent, credibility, shared ownership, joint implementation, follow-up and review.

It also reaffirms the sovereign right of States to set their own migration policy. It says no State can handle migration alone.

4.1 What are the 23 objectives?

Titles are shortened. Source: annex of resolution A/RES/73/195. The grouping is ours.

Each objective has a commitment and a menu of actions. States draw from the menu.

A few examples: collect good data, give regular pathways, save lives of missing migrants, use detention only as a last resort, and make remittances cheaper.

4.2 Does it cover people displaced inside their own country?

The Compact is about international migration. Its opening words speak of cooperation on international migration in all its dimensions.

I searched the full text. The phrase “internally displaced” does not appear. The word “displacement” appears in an action on disaster preparedness. Treat internal displacement as outside the Compact. This is our reading of the text.

5.1 Who checks progress?

The text renames an older UN dialogue as the International Migration Review Forum. It meets every four years, starting in 2022.

It also sets up a UN network on migration, with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) as coordinator and secretariat. A capacity-building mechanism in the UN helps states put the Compact into practice.

5.2 How is it meant to work with governments?

The Compact asks for a whole-of-government approach. Migration is a multidimensional reality that one government policy sector cannot address alone.

It also asks for partners from all sections of society, such as migrants, local communities, civil society and the private sector.

5.3 How do regional groups like the Colombo Process fit in?

Most international migration takes place within regions. So the Compact invites regional consultative processes to review its implementation in their own regions, beginning in 2020. These reviews alternate with the global forum at a four-year interval.

The Compact also invites such processes to send data, evidence and best practices to the Review Forum.

The text does not name the Colombo Process. The link is our reading. The Colombo Process is a regional consultative process, so it fits this invitation.

5.4 What is the Colombo Process?

• Purpose: a Regional Consultative Process on overseas employment and contractual labour for countries of origin in Asia.
• Nature: member state-driven, non-binding and informal.
• Started: 2003, after calls from several Asian labour-sending countries. They wanted to gain from organised labour migration and protect migrants from exploitative recruitment and employment.
• Members: 12 Member States and 8 Observer Countries. The website lists Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Viet Nam. That is the list on the site when I read it.
• Secretariat: hosted by IOM in Geneva.

5.5 How do its themes match the Compact?

The Colombo Process works on protecting migrant workers from abusive recruitment and employment practices. The Compact has an objective on fair and ethical recruitment (objective 6).

The Colombo Process also works on increasing remittance flows through formal channels. The Compact has an objective on faster, safer and cheaper remittances (objective 20).

5.6 What is India's role?

India took the chair of the Colombo Process for the first time in May 2024. It held its first meeting as chair at IOM headquarters in Geneva in June 2024.

India outlined a two-year action plan there. One priority is a regional review of the Global Compact. Another is dialogue with the Abu Dhabi Dialogue and other regional processes.

These are 2024 facts. Check who chairs the Process now before an exam.

6.1 What did the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) ask?

UPSC’s official key for Series A gives (d) None. The key gives no reasons. The reasons here are ours, from the sources above.

6.2 Why is each statement wrong?

• Statement 1: not all countries. The vote was 152 to 5 with 12 abstaining, and 164 at Marrakech.
• Statement 2: the Compact is non-legally binding.
• Statement 3: the Compact is about international migration, not internal migration.
• So: none is correct.

6.3 Which mix-ups does this topic invite?

• 164 or 152? 164 adopted at Marrakech. 152 voted yes in New York.
• Treaty or framework? A non-legally binding framework.
• Migrants or refugees? The Compact refers to migrants.
• Who coordinates the UN network? IOM.
• How many objectives? 23.
• Which Asian forum covers labour-sending countries? The Colombo Process, set up in 2003.