Pursuit of Justice for Migrants through the Application of International Migration Law

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) is the leading international organization working to facilitate “humane and orderly”  migration globally, including work to promote and disseminate international migration law. IOM requested that the Columbia University Capstone team (“the team”) draft a report that will provide sufficient evidence to demonstrate state adherence to the customary nature of international human rights law as applied to migrants. As migration patterns, laws, and policies shift, states’ recognition of certain norms under International Migration Law (IML) as customary international law is vital to protecting the rights of migrants globally. In doing so, states should work together to protect, fulfill, and respect the rights of migrants as guaranteed within various international legal agreements, including international human rights law.

To demonstrate that states understand and apply customary norms of international law to migrants requires extensive desk research into international, regional, and national laws relevant to migration and research into applicable case law. The team analyzed relevant case law in international, regional, and national courts with respect to the rights of migrants, examined decisions by states to join and adhere to relevant treaties and non-binding agreements with respect to migrants and analyzed nascent efforts related to IML, as seen with the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration. 

To achieve this goal, the team selected one area of international law with clear implications for the protection of migrants: human rights law. By demonstrating that these existing norms of customary international law are both widely observed and practiced with respect to migrants and done so out of a sense of obligation under the law, the team assessed how migrant populations are being protected by these rights and where opportunities for their application remain.