The IOM as a ‘UN-Related’ Organisation, and the Potential Consequences for People Displaced by Climate Change

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingBook chapterResearchpeer-review

The conclusion of a relationship agreement between the IOM and the UN in 2016, alongside the organisation’s rebranding to ‘UN Migration’, gave the appearance of a significant shift in a normative direction, but was it? And what are the implications for people displaced by climate change? The IOM has never been a UN agency. In fact, characteristic features of the IOM that set it apart from the UN are preserved in the 2016 Agreement, including the express retention and acknowledgement of its institutional independence. Moreover, the UN and the IOM are oriented to achieve quite different goals. Whereas the mandate of the UN is normative and protective, fundamentally concerned with upholding human rights, the constitutional mandate of the IOM is ‘to make arrangements for the organized transfer of migrants’ and to provide various migration services ‘at the request of and in agreement with the States concerned’. Accordingly, the IOM’s adoption of the UN name and logo could be misleading.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationClimate Refugees : Global, Local and Critical Approaches
EditorsSimon Behrman, Avidan Kent
Publishercambridge university press (cup)
Publication date2022
Pages338 - 356
Chapter18
ISBN (Electronic)9781108902991
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2022

    Research areas

  • Faculty of Law - International Organization for Migration, United Nations, Cooperation Agreements, Human Rights, Migration, Migrants

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