Until recently, there has existed no single legal instrument in international law that clearly and unequivocally protects the rights of all migrants. The text of the International Migrants Bill of Rights (IMBR) fills that gap. It is the culmination of years of research by the IMBR Initiative.

The format of the IMBR is deliberate: Each Article (except Article 1, defining the term “migrant”) begins with a broad declaration of a fundamental right, inspired by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (together, these declarations form the IMBR Principles). Subsequent paragraphs within each Article detail the application of each right in the context of migration and distinguish between content drawn from widely-ratified human rights instruments (articulated with the language “shall”) from those that reflect progressive developments in state practice (articulated with the language “should”).

The most recent version of the IMBR is published in Volume 28 of the Georgetown Immigration Law Journal.