UNGA mandated to prepare global compact on migration

The president of the United Nations General Assembly Miroslav Lajcak said Tuesday that the assembly has been mandated to prepare a global compact on migration.

"Migration as you all know is a global phenomenon, but we do not have a global governance," said Lajcak, who is also the Slovak minister of foreign affairs.

He is currently the president of the UN General Assembly for the 72nd session from September 2017 to September 2018.

Lajcak said the General Assembly deals with migration based on individual member states, and it tends to be "reacting rather than being proactive and being able to manage and to govern."

For that reason, the process is underway to draw up the global compact on migration.

"We have been mandated to prepare two important documents, the global compacts on refugees and on migration," said Lajcak.

He said that by September next year the General Assembly would be able "to present for endorsement the first ever global framework dealing with migration."

In Geneva, Lajcak will chair a second multi-stakeholder meeting with a number of participants and stakeholders to hear their opinions and views.

Four more such meetings will be held throughout the 72nd session of the General Assembly, which is one of the six organs of the United Nations and in which all states have equal representation.