An international conference of national human rights institutions(NHRIs) for the protection and promotion of migrant workers’ rights in the Asia-Pacific region is set to begin on Monday at Yak and Yeti Hotel in the Capital. President Ram Baran Yadav is scheduled to inaugurate the event.

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) of Nepal that hosts the conference said that around 50 representatives and rights experts from national human rights commissions in 20 countries will participate in the two-day meet. This is the first programme that the NHRC is organising in relation to the rights of migrant workers.

NHRC members expressed their hope that NHRIs would play an effective role through cross-country cooperation and use their networks to communicate issues relating to migrant workers between neighbouring and human resource-rich countries, and transit and labour destinations.

National and international human rights and migration experts representing various governmental and non-governmental organisations have been invited as keynote speakers, said the NHRC.

NHRC Commissioner Gauri Pradhan said that the conference was an initiative to safeguard the rights of migrants through a combined effort of stakeholders. Human rights activists claimed that both Nepal and destination countries for Nepali migrants have paid little attention to the rights of over three million Nepali migrant workers.

At a time when very few countries have ratified the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of all Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families (1990), stakeholders see the occasion as an opportunity to draw wider attention to the plight of migrant workers.

Published On: 26 November 2012 | The Kathmandu Post