By Charlotte Vogel, Good Shepherd International Justice and Peace Representative Associate, New York Office
“We stress that all persons, regardless of migratory status, are rights holders whose protection is a moral imperative.”
OLCGS Position Papers
The global governance of migration faces a critical challenge as United Nations Member States increasingly diverge on how to uphold the human rights of migrants and coordinate international migration strategies. On May 20, 2026, a majority of Member States voted in favor del Progress Declaration of the International Migration Review Forum (IMRF). This framework addresses complex issues in migration, and it is now a matter of political will to implement this agreement into national law.
JPIBP Associate Charlotte Vogel attended the second quadrennial IMRF in New York from May 4-8 to witness the lengthy process that went into reaching such a consensus. Representatives of governments, civil society, and UN entities shared concerns over the treatment and protection of the world’s 304 million persons in migration, as well as rights-based approaches and recommendations. These conversations centered around implementing a key international agreement: the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly, and Regular Migration (GCM). This was the first comprehensive, people-centered agreement among governments on international migration, adopted by 152 countries in 2018. Many designated as “champion countries” have a Good Shepherd presence, signaling their shared responsibility to protect migrants and serving as a reminder for our global ministries to advocate for human rights in local and national migration policies.
“Refugees and migrants are entitled to the same universal human rights and fundamental freedoms, which must be respected, protected and fulfilled at all times.”
Global Compact for Safe, Orderly, and Regular Migration
En el GSIJP event on gender-responsive approaches to migration during the 70th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW70) in March, our speakers made it clear why a large international instrument such as the GCM is important to grassroots action. Chair of the NGO Committee on Migration and former GSIJP representative, Cecelie Kern, made it clear that girls and women in migration have “the right to belong, to be protected, and to have her voice heard in systems that too often speak about her but not with her.” During the event, Sr. Gilma María Muñoz Calderón emphasized, “protection cannot be isolated or temporary. It must extend beyond borders and accompany the entire migration journey.” These crucial words mirror a key aspect of the GCM: the routes-based approach. This collaborative framework offers a holistic, cross-border approach that engages governments and other actors to support refugees and migrants from their origin, through transit, to their destination country.
The State of Migration
Prior to the IMRF, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres painted a bleak picture in the release of the GCM’s biennial report. The report stated that there are between 37 and 42 million children in migration, and there were 202,478 victims of trafficking between 2020 and 2023, 61% of whom were women. Many countries also submitted voluntary progress reports with data on vulnerabilities, such as the neglect of rights and safety procedures for girls and women. These revealed gaps in policy implementation and insufficient government remedies to uplift human rights, including in migration, as a result of environmental degradation and climate disasters.
Brazil, for example, submitted a report and was one of the Latin American countries pushing for greater progress from the closed-door document negotiations up until the passing of the Progress Declaration, along with El Salvador, Colombia, and Uruguay, among others. These countries echoed the work already carried out by Good Shepherd programs in the region, which bolster anti-trafficking initiatives, prioritize the protection of girls and women, and address the growing intersection of climate change and human mobility.
However, recent developments in government policies undermine such efforts. Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, Siobhán Mullally, condemned the use of trafficking prevention as a guise to impose more stringent regulations that inadvertently increase migrant vulnerability by forcing people onto more treacherous routes.
We see this in Chile, where our ministry, Fundación Madre Josefa, has had to deal with the consequences of the government shutting down six shelters for irregular migrants in the border town of Colchane in the name of national security. For girls, child detention and family separation remain in practice despite never being in the best interest of the child. Addressing climate change, experts deplored the lack of clear legal protections and the inaccessibility of legal mechanisms for such migrants.
The Progress Declaration maintains that rights and dignity must be afforded to all migrants at each stage of migration, regardless of their migration status, geographic location, or political leadership. Still, much of civil society walked away unfulfilled, with little progress actually being made since the GCM was signed eight years ago.
In the face of increasingly restrictive national policies and hostile international discourse, it is more urgent than ever for us as Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd to defend the rights of migrants and offer them protection, in our charism of leaving no one behind.
