CMSOnAir | The Global Compact on Migration (featuring Ambassador Juan Jose Gómez Camacho and Ambassador Jürg Lauber)
October 23, 2017

On September 19, 2016, United Nations (UN) member states gathered for the High-level Summit Addressing Large Movements of Migrants and Refugees. At the conclusion of the meeting, 193 UN member states adopted the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants, committing governments to develop a global compact for safe, orderly and regular migration (“The Global Compact on Migration”). The Global Compact on Migration, according to the UN, “will be the first, intergovernmentally negotiated agreement…to cover all dimensions of international migration in a holistic and comprehensive manner.” It is scheduled to be considered and adopted before the 73rd General Assembly in September 2018.
In the meantime, government officials, civil society and other diverse stakeholders are engaging in a series of informal thematic sessions, regional consultations and stakeholder consultations meant to inform the final document. This episode features a conversation with the co-facilitators leading the development of the Global Compact on Migration – Ambassador Juan Jose Gómez Camacho, Permanent Representative of Mexico to the United Nations and Ambassador Jürg Lauber, Permanent Representative of Switzerland to the United Nations.
Ambassador Gómez Camacho has been a career diplomat since 1988, holding various positions within Mexico’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and abroad, including: Head of Mission to the European Union and Ambassador to Belgium and Luxembourg; Permanent Representative to the United Nations and other International Organizations in Geneva; Ambassador to Singapore, Myanmar and Brunei Darussalam; and Deputy Permanent Representative of Mexico to the Organization of American States.
Ambassador Lauber previously served as the Head of the United Nations and International Organizations Division of Switzerland’s Federal Department of Foreign Affairs; Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations and other international organizations in Geneva; Permanent Representative to the Conference on Disarmament; and Chef de Cabinet to the President of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands. Ambassador Lauber also worked with the United Nations Transition Assistance Group (UNTAG) in Namibia and carried out other peacekeeping work.
In this episode, Ambassador Gómez Camacho and Ambassador Lauber speak with Kevin Appleby, CMS’s senior policy director of international migration, on the Global Compact on Migration. Among the issues discussed, the Ambassadors consider the challenges posed by rising xenophobia and hostile political climates and the role of civil society, particularly faith-based institutions, in informing and negotiating the final document.
To learn more about the Global Compact on Migration, visit refugeesmigrants.un.org.
To read the Twenty Action Points for the Global Compacts developed by the Migrants and Refugees Section of the Dicastery of Integral Human Development, Holy See, visit https://goo.gl/1dazou.