6th Annual Giving Women Conference: “Women migrants: their needs, the dangers, the violence, and the power. Giving women migrants a voice.”

Ms. Moquette [Founder & Vice-chair, Giving Women],
Distinguished colleagues,
Ladies and gentlemen:

I am very pleased to join you for the 6th Annual Giving Women Conference. Gender equality is of great importance to me, as it should be for anybody else on this planet – whether they realize it or not. None of the three major objectives of the United Nations: peace, promotion of human rights and development, are attainable without gender equality.

Your work at the Giving Women organization is critical in the pursuit of equal opportunities for women and men. The topic that you have chosen for this conference – women migrants – shows once again that you are there to make a positive difference by addressing key issues of our time. I am grateful to be able to share some of my thoughts on this topic.
Your conference discusses the needs, the dangers, the violence, and the power of – and facing – women migrants. We all agree that the last thing that is necessary is another man telling women what they need. So I am not here to do that. Instead, let me outline briefly what I think the international community should be doing to finally develop a response to the global migrant and refugee challenge that addresses the needs of all categories of migrants.

Last month, I was in New York where I attended the UN Summit on Addressing large Movements of Refugees and Migrants. This summit reiterated that migration is a global issue and requires shared responsibility. It was followed by a US-led summit that generated specific increased commitments. As President Obama underlined, the 50 states and organizations participating in the summit increased their contributions to humanitarian appeals in 2016 by USD 4.5 billion and committed to roughly doubling the number of refugees they collectively admit to more than 360,000.

These steps are very welcome. They show that with political leadership and commitment, solutions can be found. However, this needs to be put in perspective: 21.3 million refugees are currently on the move worldwide and 65.3 million persons are forcibly displaced. That includes those displaced within a country. If we look at refugees and other types of migrants, we get to 244 million as of 2015. In this context, it is clear that the decisions taken last month in New York, are not enough.

The international community is wasting incredible amounts of human capital and causing unnecessary suffering to millions of refugees and other migrants who are stuck in camps and legal limbo. With genuine political will, this situation can be managed. We have done better before. We have the necessary know-how and experience. In the 1970s and 1980s, millions of people were fleeing across Southeast Asia, many of them by boat on dangerous crossings, also known as the “Vietnam Boat People”, and we found a coordinated response. A system that distinguishes between refugees and economic migrants and puts in place policies that address their respective rights and needs can be designed in today’s world, as we have done in the past.

Considering that almost half migrating population are women, it is clear that our response to trends of international migration, including refugees, must have a gender dimension. So what is needed to ensure that protection and opportunities reach women migrants just like men? First of all, a global approach must help to reduce the dangers women migrants are facing. These include violence against women, both in the private and public spheres. While on the move, migrant women are at risk from physical violence by state actors, such as police officers, customs officers or workers in detention centres, but also by non-state actors. For example, women may be compelled or forced to work or prostitute themselves in exchange for transportation, food or accommodation. According to an OSCE study, female labour migrants are frequently confined to low-skilled jobs in domestic and care work, hotel and catering services, the entertainment and sex industry, agriculture and assembly lines, all of which may expose women to more physical and psychological harm than the jobs predominantly occupied by male migrants. And within their families or with their partners, migrant women can also face increased risk of violence as integration into a new environment can bring about tensions. The roles of men and women may be changing when migrants settle in the host country, which can challenge the traditional power relations between men and women that are custom in their country of origin, thus leading to conflicts and violence.

Awareness of these risks is important to ensure that policies actively address them. Officials dealing with migrants must be adequately trained as there is no “one-size-fits-all” solution. Incentives for exploitation must be eradicated through a combination of accountability and proper working conditions for the officials themselves. Integration courses and policies need to provide guidance and offer support to migrants. Labour laws must be enforced. In many countries, these steps still need to be developed further.

UN entities such as the High Commissioner for Refugees and the International Organization for Migration, which has joined the UN family recently, have paid particular attention to gender-related aspects in their work for many years. Refugee camps are designed to reduce gender-related risks, and policy advice is adjusted. Both heads of these organizations are also part of the Geneva Gender Champions initiative, which I launched with the Permanent Representative of the USA and with the NGO Women@theTable in 2015. This initiative asks each of the more than 110 participating leaders from the private and public sectors to commit towards gender parity on panel discussions here in Geneva. This is crucial. It guarantees that women’s voices are heard in the early stages that design and discuss future policies and programmes which may have gender-specific impacts – including on women migrants. And all Geneva Gender Champions agree to make two additional, new commitments to advance gender equality in their organization or in their programmatic work. The idea of this network is spreading to other UN duty stations, and I encourage you all to take a look at our website genevagenderchampions.com to learn more about it.

Making sure that migration policies are gender-sensitive is not only about protecting the rights and safety of migrant women. It is also important to highlight that society benefits from the benefits women migrants bring to society. According to the International Labour Organization, migrants, especially migrant women, actually have higher labour force participation rates than non-migrants. And rather than taking away jobs from “locals”, migration creates jobs. According to OECD research, migrants expand the domestic market and create a job for every one they occupy. If politicians were to tell people these facts rather than pandering to xenophobic elements, we would all be better off!

Migrant women also make particular contributions to the communities they left. Research on remittances suggests that women tend to send a higher proportion of their income to their communities and families back home than men, even though they generally earn less than men. They also usually send money more regularly and for longer periods of time. These examples highlight the power of migrant women, who can further increase their positive contribution to both their country of origin and their host country, if the right policies are in place.

A coherent and global system to manage migration and refugee flows that is gender-sensitive is much needed. The declaration of the UN summit in New York last month acknowledges this [e.g. article 2.10 “We will ensure that our responses to large movements of refugees and migrants mainstream a gender perspective, promote gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls, and fully respect and protect the human rights of women and girls.”]. Today’s 244 million migrants make up about 3.3% of the global population. This number is likely to increase in the future. Climate change alone will lead to a significant increase of migration, as more people will be on the move for survival and to look for a better future. This makes the need for a global approach all the more urgent.

While progress on the specific question of migration has been slow and unsatisfactory, the path-breaking agreements of 2015 including the Sustainable Development Goals, the Addis Ababa Action Agenda on financing for sustainable development, the Paris Climate Agreement and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction offer a real opportunity to address root causes of migration. And just like the ad-hoc migration policies, forward-looking policies also need to incorporate a gender-dimension to ensure that the needs of everyone are addressed. Goal 5 of the Sustainable Development Goals has concrete targets to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls. This agenda acknowledges and emphasizes that issues are interconnected. Gender equality is a strong example of a factor that cuts across all aspects of sustainable development.

To achieve the ambitious 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and thereby help to reduce the risks of forced migration while maintaining the benefits of voluntary migration, we need to work together. We need to work horizontally, across issues and across sectors. And this is why I applaud your gathering here today. Your organization is serving as a powerful catalyst for projects and programmes that help achieve different development goals and targets. It is a great example of the impact that empowered women can have. As we implement the Sustainable Development Goals, and as we keep pushing for a more integrated global system to manage migration, we all need to strengthen our collaboration. Only together will we be able to ensure that more women – including women migrants – are empowered to follow your example in playing their part on our path towards a more prosperous future.

I thank you for the important work you are doing, and for having invited me to be part of today’s conference. I wish you a successful continuation of the discussions.

Thank you very much.