Joint letter for CSOs’ participation in states GFMD roundtables

Civil society space in the week of GFMD meetings has slowly increased since they began in 2007 - first from one day to two days and now also in 4 hours of “common space” with all governments. What has not changed is that civil society is still not permitted to participate in government roundtables.

Following the Global Forum on Migration and Development in Turkey last October, about half of the civil society delegates participated in an assessment conducted by ICMC’s GFMD civil society Coordinating Office. One of the clearest results was indeed the demand for more and better interaction between governments and civil society in GFMD meetings.

This is not a new issue: Each of the past three years, ICMC and the International Steering Committee of civil society for the GFMD (the ISC) have asked the governments to invite representatives of civil society to those roundtables, simply following the model adopted by governments during the High-level Dialogue on Migration and Development in 2013. So far, without success. 2016, we once again prepared a letter to the current GFMD government chair, Bangladesh, asking for a meeting to discuss this proposal. It already has been signed and submitted by various members of the ISC. However, the more signatures we can obtain, the stronger is our argument.

If your organisation would also like to sign in support of the letter, please complete the small form on-line until Monday 21 March.

Edit 22 March: We thank all the 150 participants for their signature which contributes to a step of momentous significance!