International Migrants Bill of Rights Program

The migration of human beings — whether pulled by the promise of new opportunities or reunification with family; pushed by persecution, conflict, global climate change, or other adversity; or both pushed and pulled by multiple factors — is older than the organization of political communities into nation-States or the elaboration of legal norms protecting individual rights. And yet the movement and the rights of people crossing borders are inadequately governed and incompletely protected by a fragmented patchwork of institutions and norms.

To fill this gap, the International Migrants Bill of Rights (IMBR) Initiative developed the IMBR, the first and most comprehensive restatement of how the human rights of all migrants are protected under international law. The vision of the IMBR Initiative is a world in which the human rights of all international migrants are protected, regardless of the impetus for their migration. The IMBR Initiative’s mission is to advocate for the protection of migrants’ human rights through the advancement and implementation of the norms reflected in the IMBR. The initiative pursues this mission through undertaking cutting-edge, interdisciplinary research, hosting events and providing technical assistance on the human rights of migrants to civil society, national law and policymakers, and international organizations.

The initiative is also building the first global Migrants’ Rights Database, using a set of novel indicators based on the IMBR, benchmarking how states reflect their international obligations in national law. Because norms and governance mutually reinforce one another, projects of the IMBR Initiative use interdisciplinary research to make norms and governance more effective — changing law, policy, and practice to improve the lives of migrants and the integrity of their societies.

At Cornell, the IMBR Initiative contributes to the Law School’s Migration and Human Rights Program and the university’s Migrations Initiative.

La Carta de Derechos de los Migrantes Internacionales, Principios y Comentarios están disponibles en español.

The International Migrants Bill of Rights (IMBR) Initiative was founded at Georgetown University Law Center in 2008. The early work of the IMBR Initiative was managed at Georgetown as a collaboration between the American University in Cairo, the Global Law Scholars program at Georgetown University Law Center, the Migration Studies Unit at the London School of Economics and the Minerva Institute at Hebrew University. The Initiative was then hosted by the Georgetown Law Human Rights Institute and managed by a volunteer steering committee. In 2019, the Initiative relaunched at Cornell University.

The first major research publications of the Initiative were a draft bill of rights, presented at and published in a special symposium hosted by the Georgetown Immigration Law Journal, and then a final set of principles, bill of rights and detailed legal commentaries, presented at a symposium co-hosted by Georgetown Law, the London School of Economics, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva and again published in the Georgetown Immigration Law Journal (see here for a list of those who contributed to the drafting of the IMBR and its legal commentaries). The Initiative also developed a handbook intended primarily to guide application of the IMBR by civil society in advocacy to better recognize and protect the rights of all international migrants. A detailed history of the early work of the Initiative was published in 2010 in Volume 24 of the Georgetown Immigration Law Journal.

The Initiative then developed a set of draft research indicators and further refined these indicators, including through conference proceedings at Georgetown, before pilot testing the current IMBR indicators as part of the World Bank’s Global Knowledge Partnership on Migration and Development (KNOMAD). Further development of the Initiative’s Migrants Rights Database is ongoing.

The Initiative’s work has been advanced by the direct or indirect support of the International Migration Initiative of the Open Society Foundations, the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, the Georgetown Institute for the Study of International Migration, the Georgetown Law Human Rights Institute, the Georgetown University Law Center Office of the Dean and Global Law Scholars Program, Shearman & Sterling, LLP, the World Bank and individual philanthropic giving as well as, at Cornell, the University’s Office of the Vice Provost for International Affairs and the Law School and its Migration and Human Rights Program.

The International Migrants Bill of Rights (IMBR) Initiative’s Director is Ian M. Kysel, Visiting Assistant Clinical Professor of Law at Cornell Law School.

The work of the IMBR Initiative is guided by an Advisory Board comprised of experts in international migration and which includes a number of co-authors of the IMBR.

Advisory Board

• Justin Gest (cochair), associate professor, George Mason University Schar School of Policy and Government
• Bianca Z. Santos (cochair), coexecutive Director, Pangea Legal Services
• E. Tendayi Achiume, professor of law, director, Promise Institute for Human Rights, University of California Los Angeles
• T. Alexander Aleinikoff, university professor and director, Zolberg Institute, New School for Social Research
• Rebecca J. Balis, consultant, UNICEF
• Álvaro Botero-Navarro, adjunct professor of law, American University Washington College of Law
• Vincent Chetail, professor of international law, director, Global Migration Centre, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies
• François Crépeau, Hans & Tamar Oppenheimer Chair in Public International Law, director, Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism, McGill University
• B. Shaw Drake, policy counsel, American Civil Liberties Union Border Rights Center
• Thomas Gammeltoft-Hansen, professor with special responsibilities, University of Copenhagen and professor II, Oslo University
• Elizabeth Gibson, senior attorney, New York Legal Assistance Group
• Elspeth Guild, Jean Monnet Professor ad personam, Queen Mary University of London and Radboud University Nijmegen, Netherlands
• Itamar Mann, senior slecturer in law, University of Haifa
• Susan F. Martin, Donald G. Herzberg Professor Emerita, Georgetown University
• Juan E. Méndez, professor of human rights law in residence, American University Washington College of Law
• Andrew I. Schoenholtz, professor from practice, director, Center for Applied Legal Studies, Director, Human Rights Institute, Georgetown University Law Center
• Melissa Stewart, Dash-Muse Teaching Fellow, Georgetown Law Human Rights Institute
• Sanjula Weerasinghe, independent consultant and nonresident fellow, Georgetown Institute for the Study of International Migration and Centre Affiliate, Andrew and Renata Centre for International Refugee Studies

The IMBR Initiative has influenced the United Nations International Dialogue on Migration. Following the New York Declaration, the IMBR provided a critical analysis gauging that document’s successes and shortcomings. Through sustained engagement with key state missions to the U.N. and analysis that evolved as the Global Compacts evolved, the IMBR Initiative presented key findings at preparatory meetings in Geneva, written analysis of initial drafts of the compacts, and informal contact with the offices of the cofacilitators, states, and civil society in order to provide technical support and legal commentary on specific questions throughout the drafting process. The IMBR Initiative made contributions that helped shape state commitments in the Global Compact on Migration, including related to the following: non-refoulement, vulnerable migrants, prohibited grounds for discrimination, detention, due process, freedoms, and references to human rights.

The IMBR Initiative has worked closely with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights since 2013 to develop an Americas-specific set of principles for the rights of migrants. Despite the fact that the Americas has a rich migration history and a robust human rights system, a surprising gap persists — the lack of a single set of norms or guidelines for human rights during the migration process. The Inter-American Principles, while drawing upon regional jurisprudence, largely reflect the influence and language of the IMBR (in many cases verbatim). The draft principles were circulated for comments by stakeholders in early 2019.

The IMBR Initiative has created a set of novel indicators to evaluate state compliance with the IMBR’s norms and, through support from the World Bank’s KNOMAD program, piloted the indicators in five principal destination states: Germany, Mexico, Russia, South Africa, and Turkey. The results represent a powerful tool for identifying common legal baselines and benchmarking state compliance with the law and, through this, identifying specific areas to change state practice. The initiative is now working, with the support of the Swiss Agency for International Development, to add another thirty countries to what will be the first global database evaluating state compliance with the human rights of all migrants.

The Initiative and its collaborators have produced a range of academic and other publications over the years, including in two, edited, symposium editions of the Georgetown Immigration Law Journal 28, no. 1 (fall 2013) and 24, nos. 3 and 4 (spring and summer 2010).

The IMBR Initiative has also developed a Handbook to guide the promotion of the human rights of migrants using the IMBR.

The IMBR Initiative has influenced the United Nations International Dialogue on Migration. Following the New York Declaration, the IMBR provided a critical analysis gauging that document’s successes and shortcomings. Through sustained engagement with key state missions to the U.N. and analysis that evolved as the Global Compacts evolved, the IMBR Initiative presented key findings at preparatory meetings in Geneva, written analysis of initial drafts of the compacts, and informal contact with the offices of the cofacilitators, states, and civil society in order to provide technical support and legal commentary on specific questions throughout the drafting process. The IMBR Initiative made contributions that helped shape state commitments in the Global Compact on Migration, including related to the following: non-refoulement, vulnerable migrants, prohibited grounds for discrimination, detention, due process, freedoms, and references to human rights.

Documents related to the Global Compacts:

• Analysis of Migrant Rights in the New York Declaration.
• Comments following the Geneva Preparatory Session on the Human Rights of Migrants.
• IMBR Initiative Observations and Recommendations For Revisions To The Global Compact Draft.
• IMBR statement to the United Nations High Level Dialogue on Migration and Development.

The IMBR Initiative has worked closely with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) since 2013 to develop an Americas-specific set of principles for the rights of migrants. Despite the fact that the Americas has a rich migration history and a robust human rights system, a surprising gap persists — the lack of a single set of norms or guidelines for human rights during the migration process. The Inter-American Principles, while drawing upon regional jurisprudence, largely reflect the influence and language of the IMBR (in many cases verbatim). The draft principles were circulated for comments by stakeholders in early 2019.

This is the progression of a longstanding engagement with the IACHR. In the fall of 2014, the IMBR Initiative joined the International Detention Coalition and a broad coalition of civil society organizations to petition for a thematic hearing on the detention of migrants before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. (See the Hearing Request in English and Hearing Request in Spanish). The IMBR Initiative provided Written Testimony and a Memorandum of Law for the hearing. In the fall of 2013, the IMBR Initiative submitted a petition to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights requesting a thematic hearing on the rights of migrants and the application of the IMBR to the Americas.

The IMBR Initiative has created a set of indicators to evaluate state compliance with the rights and norms articulated in the text of the IMBR, and, through support from the World Bank and KNOMAD, piloted the indicators in five principal destination states: Germany, Mexico, Russia, South Africa, and Turkey. The results represent a powerful tool for identifying common legal baselines and benchmarking state compliance with the law and, through this, identifying specific areas to change state practice. The IMBR Initiative is now seeking to expand this project beyond these initial pilot countries.

Documents related to the indicators:

• Migrants Rights Database: Pilot Study Report
• The Migrant Rights Database: Legal Protections and Implementation in 36 Countries Worldwide
• How States Hosting the Majority of the World’s Migrants Protect Rights Implicated in the Global Compact

A published version of the IMBR is available here.

The International Migrants Bill of Rights Principles:

• Every migrant has the right to dignity, including physical, mental, and moral integrity.
• Every migrant has the right, without any discrimination, to the equal protection of the law of any state in which the migrant is present.
• Vulnerable migrants, including children, women, and disabled migrants, have the right to the protection and assistance required by their condition and status and to treatment which takes into account their special needs.
• Every migrant has the inherent right to life.
• Every migrant has the right to liberty and security of person.
• Every migrant has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law.
• Every migrant has the right to an effective remedy.
• Every migrant has the right to due process of law.
• Every migrant victim of crime has the right to assistance and protection, including access to compensation and restitution.
• Every migrant has the right to protection against discriminatory or arbitrary expulsion or deportation, including collective expulsion.
• Every migrant has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum.
• Every migrant has the right against refoulement.
• Every migrant has the right to a nationality.
• Every migrant family has the right to protection by society and the State.
• Every migrant has the right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion or belief.
• Every migrant has the right to freedom of opinion and expression.
• Every migrant has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.
• Every migrant has the right to participate in the civil and political life of the migrant’s community and in the conduct of public affairs.
• Every migrant has the right to be free from slavery, servitude, or forced or compulsory labor.
• Every migrant has the right to work and to just and favorable conditions of work.
• Every migrant has the right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health.
• Every migrant has the right to an adequate standard of living.
• Every migrant has the right to education.
• Every migrant has the right to enjoy the migrant’s own cultures and to use the migrant’s own languages, either individually or in community with others, and in public or private.

The text of the IMBR is derived from a large body of international law, including human rights law, refugee law, and international labor law, among many others. These sources are set out in a detailed set of Legal Commentaries that ground each provision of the IMBR in relevant sources in international law – including areas of progressive development.

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

La Carta de Derechos de los Migrantes Internacionales (IMBR, por sus siglas en inglés) contribuye a los debates importantes en curso acerca de la manera en que el mundo ve y trata a las personas que cruzan fronteras. Accesible pero respaldado por una extensa investigación legal, el propio IMBR es una reafirmación del derecho internacional existente y los desarrollos progresivos que se aplican a los derechos de los migrantes, incluidos los derechos humanos, los refugiados y el derecho laboral.

A lo largo de varios años de trabajo, la Iniciativa IMBR ha desarrollado un conjunto de Herramientas para ayudar a los migrantes, miembros de la sociedad civil, académicos y profesionales, así como a legisladores locales, nacionales, regionales e internacionales y a los políticos responsables de establecer normas de migración, a abogar por los derechos de los migrantes y educar a otros sobre los derechos de los migrantes.

Estos materiales están disponibles en español.

The IMBR Initiative has created a set of novel indicators to evaluate state compliance with the IMBR’s norms and, through support from the World Bank’s KNOMAD program, piloted the indicators in five principal destination States: Germany, Mexico, Russia, South Africa, and Turkey. The results represent a powerful tool for identifying common legal baselines and benchmarking State compliance with the law and, through this, identifying specific areas to change State practice. The Initiative is now working, with the support of the Swiss Agency for International Development, to add another 30 countries to what will be the first, global database evaluating State compliance with the human rights of all migrants.

The Pilot Study is available here.

The Indicators research work is currently led by Advisory Board co-chair Dr. Justin Gest and a team of researchers at George Mason University’s Schar School of Policy and Government.

The International Migrants Bill of Rights (IMBR) Initiative’s research, including provisions of its International Migrants Bill of Right and the findings of its Migrants Rights Database, has been applied in law and practice by civil society, national law and policymakers and international organizations as well as in scholarly publications (including in two symposia editions of the Georgetown Immigration Law Journal).

From 2015–17, the cochairs of the legacy IMBR Steering Committee served on the Model International Mobility Convention at Columbia University, providing input on the development of a model convention to be considered by law and policymakers.

Members of the legacy IMBR Steering Committee participated in extensive consultations with and provided technical assistance to influence the recognition of migrants’ rights in the Migrants in Countries in Crisis (MICIC) Initiative’s Principles, Guidelines and Effective Practices.

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

• Justin Gest, Ian M. Kysel, Tom K. Wong, Protecting and Benchmarking Migrants’ Rights: An Analysis of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, International Migration (2019).
• Ian M. Kysel, Promoting the Recognition and Protection of the Rights of All Migrants Using a Soft-Law International Migrants Bill of Rights, 4 Journal on Migration and Human Security 190 (2016).
• Bill Frelick, Ian M. Kysel, Jennifer Podkul, The Impact of Externalization of Migration Controls on the Rights of Asylum Seekers and Other Migrants, 4 Journal on Migration and Human Security 190 (2016).
• Susan F. Martin, International Migration: Evolving Trends from the Early 20th Century to the Present, (Cambridge University Press, 2014).
• “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).
• “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).
• 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).
• 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).