Lawmakers and Policymakers

The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights Recommended Principles and Guidelines on Human Rights at International Borders that employs both the IMBR’s definition of migrant and savings clause language from the IMBR’s preambular paragraphs.

Academic Publications

  • Susan F. Martin, International Migration: Evolving Trends from the Early 20th Century to the Present, (Cambridge University Press, 2014).Excerpt: “The IMBR is a good starting point for serious discussions among states on what should be the fundamental rights guaranteed to all migrants. Not all of its provisions are likely to remain intact, and some states and NGOs will argue that the focus of limited time and resources should be on ratification of the Migrant Workers Convention, rather than on what might be called a ‘soft law’ approach. Nevertheless, given the reluctance of destination countries to ratify the Migrant Workers Convention, and continuing abuses that many migrants experience, gaining greater clarity as to what governments recognize as fundamental rights would be a step in the right direction. Setting of norms is important but abuses by the very governments that have drafted and ratified the conventions that guarantee rights is all too common. Putting an International Migrants Bill of Rights into practice is the next step.”
  • Peter D. Sutherland, The International Migrants Bill of Rights: Why it Matters, 28 Georgetown Immigration Law Journal 269 (2013).Excerpt: “The International Migrants Bill of Rights (IMBR) is a single legal framework that summarizes the rights all international migrants can claim. It is a step toward improving the status quo for international migrants and establishing a tool by which advocates can effect change . . . The IMBR is a politically viable tool that could address the fundamental gap between today’s rhetoric about human rights and the frequent failure to protect rights in practice. It could aid advocates in primarily two ways: by presenting in compelling fashion the evidence that states already have obligations to migrants under international law, and by providing a set of indicators and benchmarks against which to measure the performance of states in fulfilling these obligations. Additionally, the IMBR can serve as a blueprint and roadmap for building diverse societies.”
  • Colin Raja & Justine Ulanday, The IMBR: An Important and Useful Tool for Migrant Communities and Advocates, 28 Georgetown Immigration Law Journal 273 (2013).Excerpt: “In twenty-three articles, the IMBR has assembled the most pertinent and critical set of legal frameworks that apply to the human rights of migrants, and also offers extremely necessary and useful categorizations and definitions which greatly enhance and support these rights . . . The IMBR and its accompanying Handbook offer much needed tools for us to ensure that we are well-equipped to ramp up our capacities to play that role and tackle upcoming challenges; to ensure that migrants’ rights remain the over-arching framework within which new and developing initiatives are structured. Furthermore, it builds our communities’ knowledge base and capacity regardless of the political discourse of the moment. Finally, it challenges us as advocates to continue to direct efforts at the policy level as well as the individual level.
  • Bianca Z. Santos, Preface to the IMBR, 28 Georgetown Immigration Law Journal 1 (2013).
  • Susan F. Martin, Introduction to the IMBR, 28 Georgetown Immigration Law Journal 5 (2013).
  • Vincent Chetail, The Human Rights of Migrants in General International Law: From Minimum Standards to Fundamental Rights, 28 Georgetown Immigration Law Journal 225 (2013).
  • Tom K. Wong & Justin Gest, Organizing Disorder: Indexing Migrants Rights and International Migration Policy, 28 Georgetown Immigration Law Journal 257 (2013).
  • Justin Gest, et al., Tracking the Process of International Norm Emergence: A Comparative Analysis of Six Agendas and Emerging Migrants’ Rights, 19 Global Governance 153 (2013).
  • IMBR Initiative, International Migrants Bill of Rights (Draft in Progress), 24 Georgetown Immigration Law Journal 395 (2010).
  • Eleanor Acer & Jake Goodman, Reaffirming Rights: Human Rights Protections of Migrants, Asylum Seekers and Refugees in Immigration Detention, 24 Georgetown Immigration Law Journal 507 (2010).
  • Alexander Betts, Soft Law and the Protection of Vulnerable Migrants, 24 Georgetown Immigration Law Journal 533 (2010).
  • Tomer Broude, The Most Favored Nation Principle, Equal Protection, and Migration Policy, 24 Georgetown Immigration Law Journal 553 (2010).
  • Jorge A. Bustamante, Extreme Vulnerability of Migrants: The Cases of the United States and Mexico, 24 Georgetown Immigration Law Journal 565 (2010).
  • Ryszard Cholewinski, Human Rights of Migrants: The Dawn of a New Era?, 24 Georgetown Immigration Law Journal 585 (2010).
  • Avinoam Cohen, From Status to Agency: Defining Migrants, 24 Georgetown Immigration Law Journal 617 (2010).
  • Justin Gest, Avoiding Evasion: Implementing International Migration Policy, 24 Georgetown Immigration Law Journal 639 (2010).
  • Ryan T. Mrazik & Andrew I. Schoenholtz, Protecting and Promoting the Human Right to Respect for Family Life: Treaty-Based Reform and Domestic Advocacy, 24 Georgetown Immigration Law Journal 651 (2010).
  • Gerald L. Neuman, A Migrants Bill of Rights–Between Restatement and Manifesto, 24 Georgetown Immigration Law Journal 685 (2010).

Conferences and Workshops

  • Georgetown University Law Center, International Migrants Bill of Rights Indicators, February 2013 Conference.
  • Graduate Institute Geneva Program for the Study of Migration, International Migrants Bill of Rights Initiative, March 2011 Conference.
  •  Open Society Foundations, The International Migrants Bill of Rights: Civil Society Activism in the Governance of Migration, September 2011 Conference.
  • Georgetown University Law Center, A Draft International Migrants Bill of Rights, March 2010 Conference.

Journal Articles