New York – The Agreement to make the International Organization for Migration (IOM) a Related Organization of the UN was signed yesterday 19 September 2016 in New York by the UN Secretary-General Ban-Ki Moon and IOM Director General William Lacy Swing at the UN Summit for Refugees and Migrants. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdY5eet2fUg

The Agreement outlines a closer relationship between IOM and the UN to strengthen the cooperation and enhance their ability to fulfil their respective mandates in the interest of migrants and Member States. Through the Agreement the UN recognizes IOM as an indispensable actor in the field of human mobility. This includes protection of migrants and displaced people in migration-affected communities, as well as in areas of refugee resettlement and voluntary returns, and incorporates migration in country development plans.

Being part of the UN system as a related organization means that IOM has agreed to work with the UN and the other organizations of the UN system in harmony with the purposes and principles contained in Articles 1 and 2 of the Charter of the United Nations of 1945 (UN Charter) which serve as guiding objectives for all (e.g. for international peace and security, equal rights and self-determination of peoples, international cooperation to solve international problems, respect for human rights, etc.), while remaining a fully separate and independent organization, in the same way it has always been.

The twenty‐first century is an era of unprecedented human mobility. As a result of trends in demography, poverty, inequality and development, unemployment and demand for labour and skills, conflict and disasters, environmental degradation and climate change, and rights and governance deficits, amongst other factors, large‐scale movements are inevitable. However, migration is not a problem to be solved but a mutually beneficial process to be managed responsively and humanely.

“The signature of this historic agreement brings the leading global migration agency, International Organization for Migration (IOM) – into the United Nations – the culmination of a 65-year relationship. For the very first time in 71 years, the UN now has a ‘UN Migration Agency’,” Ambassador Swing said, adding, “This is a singular honour for our Organization – and a genuine success for migrants and Member States and indeed for this Summit.”

A World On The Move - IOM Joins the UN at the Summit for Refugees and Migrants