UNESCO holds that “No human being is illegal”. Photo/COURTESY UN.
MARRAKECH, Morocco, Dec 12 – The Women in Migration Network has launched Marrakech Women’s rights Manifesto, urging Governments to place women’s rights and voices at the center of implementation of the Global Compact for Migration which was adopted on Monday.
The seven point Manifesto stresses the need to allow women to participate more in policies, have safe pathways for women in offering them permanent residence in their receiving countries as well as end violence against women, a major contributor to migration.
Catherine Tactaquin from the Women in Migration Network said 70 per cent of women globally are poor and prone to violence and discrimination.
She said, for the GCM to work, governments, business community and private sector must include women in the policy framework processes.
This even as data from UN Women indicates that there are approximately 260 million migrants globally with half of that being women.
The statistics further states that women account for around 44 percent of the estimated 150 million migrant workers worldwide.
Migrant women workers send back to their countries USD300 billion annually which is half of the Global remittances.
However the report on women also paints a grim picture where it says that 2 million women and children are trafficked yearly on the global arena with women and girls constituting 98 percent of all sexually exploited victims of trafficking.
“Governments therefore must fulfill their pledges and promises of ensuring that women voices and rights are central to the development of Migration policies”, Sarnata Reynolds from Oxfam international says.
The two day Global Compact for Migration by the United Nations in Marrakech Morocco closes today with Kenya having been part of the 150 members who endorsed the compact that is set to be tabled before the UN General Assembly for voting on the 19th of December 2018.
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