The Convention established the Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families (CMW) to monitor the implementation of the Convention by its State parties. It held its first session in 2004. The Committee on Migrant Workers is currently composed of 14 independent experts who are elected for a term of four years by States parties.
“All State parties are obliged to submit regular reports to the Committee on how the rights are being implemented. States must report initially one year after acceding to the Convention and then every five years.” The Committee examines each report and address its concerns and recommendations to the State party in the form of concluding observations.
In addition, Article 77 of the Convention allows a State party to declare that it recognizes the competence of the Committee to receive and consider communications from or on behalf of individuals subject to its jurisdiction. Such Individuals should first have exhausted all possible domestic remedies. This provision will take effect only after ten State parties have made such a declaration.
The Committee meets in Geneva and normally holds two sessions per year. It can also publish statements on themes related to its work and interpretations of the content of the provisions in the Convention.
With respect to Canada, because it has neither signed nor acceded to the Convention, it is not directly affected by any international monitoring by bodies created by the treaty.
However, human rights in Canada, as in the other Member States of the UN, are reviewed through the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) process, under the auspices of the UN Human Rights Council. The UPR is one of the key elements of the Council which reminds States of their responsibility to fully respect and implement all human rights and fundamental freedoms and provides the opportunity for each State to declare what actions they have taken to improve the human rights situations in their countries and to fulfil their human rights obligations. In June 2013, the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review issued its most recent report for Canada. In that report the Working Group recommended that Canada consider ratifying or acceding to the Convention “to further promote and protect migrants, in particular undocumented and irregular migrants.”
In a 2006 report commissioned by UNESCO and authored by a team of nongovernmental experts, four broad reasons for Canadian government objection to the Convention were identified:
- Migration management (including the rights accorded to migrant workers) lies within the national sovereignty of each nation state and should consequently not be subjected to multilateral institutions;
- The spirit of the Convention is historically far removed from Canadian philosophy in terms of the selection of foreign workers which favours access to Canadian citizenship;
- Fundamental rights of all persons, irrespective of their legal status, are already guaranteed in Canada; [and]
- Signing and ratifying the Convention would force Canada to review its temporary migrants programmes in order to make them more respectful of the Convention.”