Migrant workers are “foreigners” who have been allowed to enter the territory – typically because they are thought to perform an economically valuable role in the receiving countries. They may have skills that are in short supply in the receiving country, or be prepared to do work that others will not do. Despite their contribution migrant workers face profound discrimination. Most countries that are net migrant receiving countries have refused to ratify the treaty that protects the human rights of migrant workers: the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families.
Closing borders: to refugees, to undocumented migrants, raises questions of virtue and questions of power. The public debate around borders is so fractured, so superficial, so bedevilled with assumption and ritual conflict that it conveys little new meaning. It simply reiterates the existence of a continuing contest – a contest that often is more about power than rights. In this...
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At the core of human rights is the axiomatic truth that human beings have inherent rights: that all human beings are equal and possessed of dignity and that violation of such rights is both morally offensive and legally impermissible. An alternative ordering of human relationships is mandated by exclusive national citizenship. Implicitly and explicitly...
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Despite being urged to do so, Australia will not ratify the Migrant Workers Convention: one of the major human rights treaties of the world. The Australian Human Rights Commission and countries taking part in a review of Australia’s human rights performance under the UN universal periodic review, urged Australia to consider ratifying the International Convention on the...
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One by one the world has adopted the major human rights treaties. Early on the general ones: the ones that said everyone has human rights. Then the treaties that tried to make this real for different groups in society. The ones that said we couldn’t discriminate on the basis of race, or against women, or commit torture, or...
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Among the tragedies befalling the people of Libya, is the tragedy befalling its migrant workers. On 9 March the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies reported that 30,000 migrant workers were forced back into Libya by forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi to ‘return to work’ in Tripoli. This forced return amounts to slavery. It also violates international human...
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![3454284748_7c5fb647d6[1]](http://www.abolishforeignness.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/3454284748_7c5fb647d61-150x150.jpg "3454284748_7c5fb647d6[1]")
“You who are so-called illegal aliens must know that no human being is ‘illegal’. That is a contradiction in terms. Human beings can be beautiful or more beautiful, they can be fat or skinny, they can be right or wrong, but illegal? How can a human being be illegal?” Elie Wiesel, holocaust survivor, nobel...
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The basic idea at the heart of human rights is that all human beings are equal: equal in rights – equal in human dignity. This idea is universally accepted and believed. At the same time another idea – the idea that we are separately citizens of different countries is also a feature of the modern...
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