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On 15th and 16th June, a meeting is being held in Rabat on migration with these two key issues on the table: asylum and international protection.
In recent months, the urgent need to manage migratory flows, an issue of vital importance for millions of people, has come to the forefront.
It’s evident that, due to the continual crises of a diverse nature, both on the African continent and in the Middle East, we are currently seeing numerous examples of human beings who have left behind all they had in the hope of finding a better and safer life in neighbouring countries, or even in more distant and hitherto unfamiliar lands. The most recent tragedies in the Mediterranean demonstrate the magnitude of the desperation of these people, and the urgency of finding immediate and effective answers to this serious problem.
Thus we are seeing countries in Europe, Africa, and other regions acknowledging the issue of migration as a central point on their policy agendas. Many of them have initiated actions to adapt and develop their migration policies to contribute concrete responses to the complex current situation. Examples of this are Mali, Morocco and Cape Verde, countries that have recently developed their national migration policies to respond to this phenomenon. This issue is also found at the heart of the European debate. The European Commission has presented its European Agenda on Migration, as well as preliminary proposals for a global intervention that improves the management of this problem.
The FIIAPP is not on the sidelines in these debates. Ten intense years of continuous work in this area are testimony to its contribution through the Migration and Development programme, which supports national and international initiatives to facilitate the exchange of best practices and joint cooperation in this area.
Specifically, the FIIAPP participates in the “Rabat Process”, the Euro-African Dialogue on Migration and Development, which provides a framework for consultation and coordination aimed at promoting the organisation of legal migration, fighting irregular migration and facilitating synergies between migration and development.
Recently, as a consequence of the Fourth Euro-African Ministerial Conference on “Migration and Development” held in Rome in late 2014, the issues of asylum and international protection have taken on special importance and, therefore, today are priorities for the Rabat Process.
Asylum and international protection, a central issue in the current context.
The multiple crises occurring at the moment are generating massive population movements. The area covered by the Rabat Process (North Africa, Central Africa, West Africa and the European Union) are directly affected both as a result of their own internal crises (the Ivorian, Central African, Malian and Libyan crises, and more recently the crisis in North Nigeria) as well as those of neighbouring countries (Eritrea, Somalia, Syria, etc.).
One of the direct consequences of these crises is the considerable uptick in the number of refugees and asylum seekers requesting protection.
It is in this context that the Rabat Process Support Project consortium, in which the FIIAPP participates, is organising on 15th and 16th June in Rabat a meeting on asylum and international protection, an event that will be co-chaired by Spain and Morocco.
This thematic meeting will include the participation of national and international representatives and experts, and one of its goals is to promote spaces for collaboration and consensus on issues of asylum and international protection. It aims to identify lines of action that will make it possible to develop effective protection systems and strengthen regional cooperation in these areas and in the zone covered by the Rabat Process.
Maxence Defontaine
Communications Officer of the “Rabat Process” project
More information on the Rabat Process and this upcoming meeting on this website: www.processusderabat.net.
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In the week when the OECD is presenting its report on the economic progress of Latin America, we bring you the reality of Argentina thanks to EUROsociAL.
The European Union cooperation programme for Latin America, EUROsociAL, focuses its work on social cohesion and development in various Latin American countries. One of them is Argentina, where work is being done on several projects for access to justice and prevention of violence in collaboration with the Ministry of Justice.
Kids in the “Jóvenes con más y mejor trabajo” [Young People With More and Better Jobs] programme of the Access to Justice Centre of Santiago del Estero mounted a campaign against institutional violence. Among their actions, the mural created with the slogan of the campaign, “No me pongas la mano encima” [Don’t lay a hand on me], an “open-mike radio show” and a street performance stand out.
Street violence
The IDLO, the international organisation that supports justice, (with the collaboration of EUROsociAL), held a workshop in Santiago del Estero Province to train young people on how to create their own campaigns to raise awareness about rights, and there was almost no debate: “institutional violence”—and in particular the mistreatment young people experience at the hands of the police—would have to be at the centre of their actions.
According to the IDLO, in Argentina, kids going about their business on the streets know that being detained, chased and possibly arrested by a police patrol on its rounds is a real possibility.
In most cases, there is no real motive for this. The most habitual pretext is “having the face of a criminal” or “looking suspicious”—their appearance is what makes them suspicious. Wearing a track suit or a baseball cap is an aggravating factor. One minute you’re talking to your friends, and the next you’re up against the wall with your things scattered on the pavement and a pair of hands frisking you looking for weapons or drugs.
Since 2013, EUROsociAL has been consolidating various tools for access to justice policies oriented towards different vulnerable groups: besides the young protagonists of this story, it has championed migrant women’s right to justice in Costa Rica, women victims of violence in Honduras, women victims of human trafficking in Chile, the indigenous population in Peru, and African-descended young people in Brazil”.
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April 26th is World Intellectual Property Day. We at the FIIAPP are marking the day by talking about the EU-financed project we are managing in Ukraine for strengthening their intellectual property system.
Since April 2014, we have been managing an EU-financed cooperation project, also referred to as a twinning, in Ukraine which aims to address the market for pirated and counterfeit goods there. The country is plagued by intellectual property crimes ranging from illegal downloading of movies to counterfeiting of medicines.
Under the umbrella of this project, Spanish and Danish experts on the subject will show their work protocols to the Ukrainians. The ultimate objective is to provide greater security to citizens of the country and reduce the current levels of impunity. Results are being achieved already. One of them is the draft law on “Copyright protection on the Internet”.
Learn about the project in detail by listening to our weekly radio show on Radio 5 (RNE), ‘Public cooperation around the world’. Our two cents worth in celebration of World Intellectual Property Day.
