Commission resumes debate on UN migration pact
Published: Tuesday, Jan 16th 2024, 17:30
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The UN migration pact, which was shelved by Parliament almost two and a half years ago, is once again a topic of discussion. The Foreign Affairs Committee of the Council of States (FAC-S) now wants to discuss the Federal Council's proposal in detail.
The committee decided to accept the dispatch by 11 votes to 2, as the parliamentary services announced on Tuesday. And with the same ratio of votes, the APK-S decided not to refer the bill back to the Federal Council. The detailed discussion is to take place at an upcoming meeting.
Both councils had put the UN migration pact on hold in 2021. A report on Parliament's involvement in the area of "soft law" was to be awaited before the debate. In addition, the APK-S wanted to take a detailed look at the Federal Council's report on neutrality policy before starting its deliberations.
The UN migration pact sets out measures to regulate migration across borders for the first time. These include, for example, strengthening local aid, realizing the human rights of migrants and securing borders. The agreement does not affect people who have refugee status under the Geneva Refugee Convention.
The Federal Council actually wanted to sign the pact back in 2018, but decided against it after criticism that the Federal Council could not adopt the pact without parliamentary approval. This is despite the fact that the pact concerns so-called "soft law" and the Federal Council is authorized by law to sign it. "Soft law" refers to international non-binding agreements.
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