Introduction

The ICRMW, one of the seven human rights instruments of the international community, has some notable peculiarities. It is the longest of the UN instruments, it had the slowest progress between adoption and entry into force and it has the smallest number of participating countries (Battistella, 2004). This is no coincidence but is inherently linked to the difficulty the international community has in approaching migration from a human rights perspective and agreeing on standards for its management. To illustrate this position, this chapter retraces the history of the development of international migration standards for migrants before the Convention and then focuses on its preparation, drafting and ratification stages. The various stages show, on the one hand, the close connection between human rights development and protection to migrants, and on the other hand the reluctance to extend agreed principles to migrants as this militates against the flexibility of migration, which no country is willing to renounce. A brief overview of prospects for additional ratifications is also given. After summarizing some reasons for the limited expectations of the role of the Convention, signs of hope for the protection of migrants are indicated.

Human rights and migrants before the ICRMW

Concern for the protection of migrants had been growing for some years before the international community started thinking of an international convention. However, this process was rather slow and limited in the areas involved and the categories of migrants considered.