Migrant People’s Dignity: Achievements, Difficulties and Ethical Challenges to Build the Future

With the objective of creating strategic alliances between the Costa Rican civil society organizations and the State institutions for the strengthening of public policies that take into account the migration reality in the Central American region and that strengthen the effective dialog for the due access to justice for migrant people and their families, especially the children and adolescents, asylum seekers and displaced people, the Scalabrini International Migration Network (SIMN), through the Fundación Scalabrini, in coordination with the Centro Internacional de Derechos Humanos para Migrantes (CIDEHUM), on July 8th of 2015, at the Radisson Hotel of San José, Costa Rica, organized a national meeting of policy makers, within the framework of the MADE programme.

The meeting’s main subject was: “La Dignidad de los/las Migrantes: Logros, Dificultades y Desafíos éticos para Construir el Futur (Migrant People’s Dignity: Achievements, Difficulties and Ethic Challenges to Build the Future).” During the opening session, the Costa Rican Vice-Minister, Mme. Carmen Muñoz, underlined the human rights perspective from which Costa Rica defined its migration politic. Mme. Katthya Rodríguez, General Director of the Migration Department, presented the main achievements in the implementation process of the new migration politic, including the participation of the civil society in this process. Then, Mme. Gabriela Richard, Executive Director of CIDEHUM and civil society representative in the Migration National Council in Costa Rica, encouraged the participants to include the regional and international perspective in the country’s public policies, in accordance with the regional and international processes. Mr. Idenilso Bortolotto mentioned the importance of this meeting for the strengthening of the strategic alliances and the civil society organizations networking in coordination with the governments, all in accordance with the MADE objectives.

After the opening session, various State institutions, civil society organizations and international organizations presented the main achievements and challenges in a political agenda on the national, regional and international levels

• Mme. Katthya Rodríguez presented on the migration politics in Costa Rica;
• Mme. Gabriela Richard, Executive Director of CIDEHUM, explained civil society’s role in the defense of the migrants’ human rights in Costa Rica;
• Mr. Abelardo Morales, Professor of the FLACSO and the National University of Costa Rica, did a presentation on the labour conditions of migrant people in Costa Rica;
• Mme. Gabriela Rodríguez presented an analysis of the current Centro American context and on the necessity for protection of migrants;
• Mme. Cristina Sousa, from ACAI, UNHCR’s implementing partner in Costa Rica, presented on the situation lived by the refugees and asylum seekers in the country;
• Mr. Francisco Rico-Martínez, Co-director of FCJ Refugee Center in Canada, presented its organization’s work with asylum seekers and refugees in Toronto;
• Mr. Marcelo Pisani, IOM Regional Representative, talked about the role of his organization in the current migration context of the region;
• Mr. Leonir Chiarello, Executive Director of the SIMN, presented the main trends and challenges of migration and policies on an international level, and;
• Finally, Mr. Idenilso Bortolotto, Director of the South American SIMN Regional Office, offered a synthesis of the main objectives and activities of the MADE Program.

The meeting was attended by various social actors, including migrants’ organizations, representatives of the juridical authorities, Defensoría de los Habitantes, Centro por la Justicia y el Derecho Internacional (CEJIL) and UNHCR in Costa Rica.

After each intervention, a time for debate and proposal was allowed, in accordance with the meeting’s objective. Concluding the meeting, Mme. Gabriela Rodríguez and Mr. Leonir Chiarello invited the participants to keep on strengthening the collaboration and the coordination between the civil society organizations, governments institutions and international organizations for the protection of the migrants’ rights and the definition of publics policies and programmes on migration and development from the perspective of the civil society’s 5 years 8 points Action Plan, from the GFMD and MADE programmes.

For more information:

A summary of the main points discussed during the event is available in Spanish.