The Triangle that could Square the Circle? The UN International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families, the EU and the Universal Periodic Review

Abstract:

Even before it had been fully drafted, the UN International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families was blighted by a debilitating lack of support from States. Described by one of the participants in the drafting process as the UN’s best-kept secret, it remains the least popular of the ten core international human rights instruments and has not been signed or ratified by any of the 28 EU Member States.

This article is the first substantive examination of the Convention in the context of the UN’s universal periodic review. It suggests that the universal periodic review may give the kiss of EU life to the Convention by raising awareness of it, re-energising civil society to more actively advocate for its ratification and forcing Member States to once again justify non-ratification.