The Influence of International Law on the International Movement of Persons

Many migration theories identify ‘the law’ as a significant constraint on the international movement of persons. While this constraint often operates through national migration legislation, this study examines the influence of international law in shaping contemporary patterns in the international movement of persons at the macro level. The analysis begins with an examination of the long-established power of a State to regulate cross-border movement of persons as an inherent attribute of State sovereignty, together with the accepted limitations on a State’s power to control entry and exit. Yet, international law reaches well beyond the movement of people across borders. The development of international human rights law has been a key constraint on state action in the United Nations era by also regulating the treatment of migrants within a State’s borders. The study considers how international law has responded to current migration issues, including: protection of migrant women and children; suppression of smuggling and trafficking of people; labour migration; and environmental migration. As in other areas of international society, there has been a proliferation of institutions through which international migration law is made and enforced. The most prominent among them are the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM), but the establishment of other entities with overlapping mandates has given rise to calls for a new international migration regime based on streamlined institutional arrangements. The study concludes that international law is an imperfect framework for regulating the international movement of persons because it has developed in a piecemeal fashion over a long time to deal with issues of concern at particular points in human history. Yet, despite its shortfalls, international law and its associated institutions unquestionably play a most important role in constraining and channeling state authority over the international movement of persons

The ASEAN Commission on the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Women and Children

The chapter explains the origins, nature, and tools of the Commission on the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Women and Children (ACWC) created by the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 2010. First, it reviews the long path to the creation of this ASEAN human rights mechanism, specifically underlining its source in the United Nations 1993 Vienna World Conference on Human Rights (VWC). In-depth analyses of the 1993 Bangkok Declaration and the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action (VDPA) are presented with a focus on the normative recognition of women’s rights. Second, this chapter considers the overall transformation of ASEAN toward the realization of a “community of caring societies.” Specifically, the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (2009) is analyzed and the content of the ASEAN Human Rights Declaration (2012) and the terms of reference, tools, and functions of the ACWC are explained. The role of the ACWC in linking ASEAN states and the international human rights system is discussed. Finally, the main political goals of the ACWC are defined taking into account: two 5-year plans of action adopted by ACWC in 2012 and 2016, the 2013 Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women and Children, and the 2015 ASEAN Regional Plan of Action on the Elimination of Violence against Women