Governance, frameworks and human rights protection : technical report of the high-level panel on migration in Africa

Abstract

Migration frameworks, agreements, treaties and protocols set out the foundation of migration governance. The governance of migration is usually broken down into at least three levels. The first level is national. It is good practice that a government designs a national migration policy. Some countries that are both receiving and sending countries have a national migration policy that has three components – an immigration policy, a labour migration policy and a diaspora migration policy. The second level is regional, whereby countries in regional economic communities enter into protocols that regulate free movement of persons in their respective regions. It can be intraregional (within regional economic communities) or interregional, in which case it becomes continental. The third level of migration governance is international or global, as espoused in the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (Global Compact for Migration for short), other United Nations conventions on migration and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, whereby countries are urged in target 10.7 of the Sustainable Development Goals to reduce inequality within and among countries by facilitating orderly, safe, regular and responsible migration and mobility of people, including through the implementation of planned and well managed migration policies.