Migration
Migration crises, whether caused by political, ideological, climate, economic, health or other reasons, should prompt all relevant stakeholders to strengthen solidarity with migrants beyond the countries they are leaving. These are crises involving states that are in situations of conflict or in which there have been various disasters, transit countries and those receiving hundreds of thousands of migrants who have had to flee their home regions.
The Council of Europe’s Conference of INGOs has its own specific role to play, building on its members’ activities with migrants. It places the priority on a human rights-based approach, taking the view that migrants are to be considered as full holders of these rights and not merely beneficiaries of services. The advocates and organisations that are part of the Conference are committed to ensuring respect for human rights, the rule of law and democracy. As such, they must be supported and defended.
The responses to these migration and post-migration crises are a result of citizen engagement at local, regional, national and international level. This engagement is all the more necessary given the need to improve exchanges and the way in which people live together, while at the same time confronting prejudice, preventing a backlash against migrants and taking account of a changing society. To this end, the Conference of INGOs has a dialogue tool designed to strengthen social cohesion and diversity management, both of which are based on human rights.
Migration task force - In order to strengthen the case it makes for the adoption of the measures that need to be taken to deal with the migration and post-migration crises, the Conference of INGOs has a duty support the work of NGOs and be even more receptive to their concerns. To this end, the Standing Committee of the Conference of INGOs has set up a migration task force, whose objective is to provide input for the work of all the Conference bodies, particularly by analysing the information gathered by INGOs. This monitoring work will help ensure that the concerns of NGOs working with migrants are incorporated into all the Conference’s activities.
NGOs contribution - All the NGOs working in the field to protect and receive migrants in the member states of the Conference, whether as their main activity or as part of their specialist sphere of action, can submit their contributions and ask the Conference of INGOs questions via the task force.
Please get in touch with us using the online form
Photo: Eleonas Refugee Camp, Athens © Council of Europe - Sandro Weltin
Conference of INGOs action and statements
- Statement of 11 September 2020 following the fire at the Registration and Identification Centre of Moria on the Greek island of Lesbos
- Report of the webinar of 22 June 2020 on migrants and refugees facing the Covid-19 crisis, what lessons for the post-pandemic time? [fr]
- Statement of 27 May 2020 on the prospects for refugees and migrants locked in camps in the deconfinement period
- Statement of 8 July 2019 on the release of Carole Racket - a victory for humanity
- Side event "Duty or offence of solidarity: the action of NGOs in the system of assistance and support to migrants and refugees", Strasbourg, 11 April 2019
Conference of INGOs reference documents
Council of Europe reference documents
- Guidelines of the Committee of Ministers to member states on the protection and promotion of human rights in culturally diverse societies
- Ongoing work of the Parliamentary Assembly Committee on Migration, Refugees and Displaced Persons and the List of reports, opinions, resolutions and recommendations of the Committee (1995-2014)
- Protecting migrants under the European Convention on Human Rights and the European Social Charter
- Special Representative of the Secretary General on migration and refugees: Reports
- Commissioner for Human Rights: Human rights of immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers
Reference documents from other international institutions
- Mediterranean update, migration flows in Europe: Statistics from the IOM and the UN Migration Agency