Glossary.
Alternatives to detention
Any legislation, policy or practice, formal or informal, aimed at preventing the unnecessary detention of persons for reasons relating to their migration status. Source: Adapted from International Detention Coalition, There Are Alternatives: A Handbook for Preventing Unnecessary Immigration Detention (revised edition, 2015) page 78.
Asylum
The grant, by a State, of protection on its territory to persons outside their country of nationality or habitual residence, who are fleeing persecution or serious harm or for other reasons. Asylum encompasses a variety of elements, including non refoulement, permission to remain on the territory of the asylum country, humane standards of treatment and eventually a durable solution. Source: United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Resettlement Handbook (2011) page 407.
Asylum seeker
An individual who is seeking international protection. In countries with individualised procedures, an asylum seeker is someone whose claim has not yet been finally decided on by the country in which he or she has submitted it. Not every asylum seeker will ultimately be recognised as a refugee, but every recognised refugee is initially an asylum seeker. Source: United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Master Glossary of Terms (2006).
Child trafficking
The recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of a child for the purpose of exploitation. Source: Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, Supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organised Crime (adopted 15 November 2000, entered into force 25 December 2003) 2237 UNTS 319, Art. 3(c).
Climate migration
The movement of a person or groups of persons who, predominantly for reasons of sudden or progressive change in the environment due to climate change, are obliged to leave their habitual place of residence, or choose to do so, either temporarily or permanently, within a State or across an international border. Source: Warsaw International Mechanism, Executive Committee, Action Area 6: Migration, Displacement and Human Mobility - Submission from the International Organization for Migration (IOM, 2016); M. Traore Chazalnoël and D. Ionesco, Defining Climate Migrants – Beyond Semantics (IOM weblog, 6 June 2016).
Cross-border displacement
The movements of persons who have been forced or obliged to leave their homes or places of habitual residence and move across international borders. Source: Adapted from The Advisory Group on Climate Change and Human Mobility, Human Mobility in the Context of Climate Change (Recommendations from the Advisory Group on Climate Change and Human Mobility COP 20 Lima, Peru, (2014)). PAGE 41- UN.
Debt bondage
The status or condition arising from a pledge by a debtor of his [or her] personal services or those of a person under his [or her] control as security for a debt, if the value of those services as reasonably assessed is not applied toward the liquidation of the debt or the length and nature of those services are not respectively limited and defined. Source: Adapted from Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade and Abolition of Practices Similar to Slavery (adopted 30 April 1956, entered into force 30 April 1957) 266 UNTS 3, Art. 1(a). PAGE 43- UN.
Deportation
In the migration context, see expulsion.In international humanitarian law, deportation refers to the forced displacement of civilians which is prohibited in times of occupation and non-international armed conflict except when required for their security or imperative military reasons.Source: Adapted from V. Chetail, The Transfer and Deportation of Civilians in A. Clapham, P. Gaeta and M. Sassòli (eds), The GenevaConventions: A Commentary (Oxford University Press 2015) pages 1188–1190. PAGE 45.
Detained person
Any person deprived of personal liberty. Source: United Nations General Assembly, Body of Principles for the Protection of All Persons under Any Form of Detention or Imprisonment (1988) UN Doc. A/RES/43/173.
Detention (migration)
The deprivation of liberty for migration-related reasons. Source: International Detention Coalition, There Are Alternatives: A Handbook for Preventing Unnecessary Immigration Detention (revised edition 2015) page 79.
Detention centre (migration)
A specialized facility used for the detention of migrants with the primary purpose of facilitating administrative measures such as identification, processing of a claim or enforcing a removal order. Page 47- UN.
Diaspora
Migrants or descendants of migrants whose identity and sense of belonging, either real or symbolic, have been shaped by their migration experience and background. They maintain links with their homelands, and to each other, based on a shared sense of history, identity, or mutual experiences in the destination country. Source: Adapted from International Organization for Migration, IOM’s Strategy to Enable, Engage and Empower Diaspora (n.d.) 1. REF.
Discrimination
Any distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference which is based on any ground such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status, and which has the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise by all persons, on an equal footing, of all rights and freedoms. Source: Human Rights Committee, General Comment No. 18: NonDiscrimination (10 November 1989) para. 7 in UN Doc. HRI/GEN/1/ Rev.1, 26.
Displaced persons
Persons or groups of persons who have been forced or obliged to flee or to leave their homes or places of habitual residence, either across an international border or within a State, in particular as a result of or in order to avoid the effects of armed conflict, situations of generalized violence, violations of human rights or natural or human-made disasters. Source: Adapted from Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, annexed to United Nations Commission on Human Rights, Report of the Representative of the Secretary-General, Mr Francis M. Deng, Submitted Pursuant to Commission Resolution 1997/39, Addendum (11 February 1998) UN Doc. E/CN.4/1998/53/Add.2, 5, para. 2 of the introduction.
Displacement
The movement of persons who have been forced or obliged to flee or to leave their homes or places of habitual residence, in particular as a result of or in order to avoid the effects of armed conflict, situations of generalized violence, violations of human rights or natural or human-made disasters. Source: Adapted from Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, annexed to United Nations Commission on Human Rights, Report of the Representative of the Secretary-General, Mr Francis M. Deng, Submitted Pursuant to Commission Resolution 1997/39, Addendum (11 February 1998) UN Doc. E/CN.4/1998/53/Add.2, para. 2 of the introduction. BOTH PAGE 55.
Documented migrant
A migrant authorized to enter and to stay pursuant to the law of that State or to international agreements to which that State is a party and who is in possession of documents necessary to prove his or her regular status in the country. Source: Adapted from the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families (adopted 18 December 1990, entered into force 1 July 2003) 2220 UNTS 3, Art. 5(a). Page 56.
Emigrant
From the perspective of the country of departure, a person who moves from his or her country of nationality or usual residence to another country, so that the country of destination effectively becomes his or her new country of usual residence. Page 63.
Expulsion order
An administrative act or a judicial decision requiring a non national to leave its territory. Page 69.
Extradition
The process whereby under treaty or upon the basis of reciprocity one State surrenders to another State at its request a person accused or convicted of a criminal offence committed against the laws of the requesting state, such requesting state being competent to try the offender or to apply the sentence or detention order. Page 69-70.
Family migration
A general concept covering: 1) family reunification of spouse, parent, children or other relatives; 2) family formation or new marriage of a migrant with permanent residents or citizens; or 3) family accompanying a family member entering at the same time as primary migrant.Source: Adapted from International Organisation for Migration, International Dialogue on Migration: Migration and Families (2015) page 33. See also family reunification (right to).
Family reunification (right to)
The right of non-nationals to enter into and reside in a country where their family members reside lawfully or of which they have the nationality in order to preserve the family unit. Source: Adapted from Council Directive 2003/86/EC of 22 September 2003 on the right to family reunification [2003] OJ L 251/12.
Freedom of movement (right to)
In human rights law, a human right comprising three basic elements: freedom of movement within the territory of a country and to choose one’s residence, the right to leave any country and the right to return to one’s own country. Page 79.
Gender-based violence
An umbrella term for any harmful act that is perpetrated against a person’s will and is based on socially ascribed (i.e. gender) differences between males and females. It includes acts that inflict physical, sexual or mental harm or suffering, threats of such acts, coercion, and denial of resources, opportunities or services, forced marriage and other deprivations of liberty. These acts can occur in public or in private. Page 83.
Gender equality
The equal rights, responsibilities and opportunities of all individuals regardless of their gender identity. Page 83.
Genocide
Any of the following acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, such as: killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; forcibly transferring children of the group to another group. Source: Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
Human rights
Universal legal guarantees protecting individuals and groups against actions and omissions that interfere with fundamental freedoms, entitlements and human dignity. Source: United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Frequently Asked Questions on a Human Rights-Based Approach to Development Cooperation (2006) page 1.
Humanitarian action
Assistance, protection and advocacy in response to humanitarian needs resulting from natural hazards, armed conflict or other causes, or emergency response prepareditioness. It aims to save lives and reduce suffering in the short term, and in such a way as to preserve people’s dignity and open the way to recovery and durable solutions to displacement. Source: Inter-Agency Standing Committee, Introduction to Humanitarian Action (October 2015) page 8.
Immigrant
From the perspective of the country of arrival, a person who moves into a country other than that of his or her nationality or usual residence, so that the country of destination effectively becomes his or her new country of usual residence. Page 103.
Indigenous people
People in independent countries who are regarded as indigenous on account of their descent from the populations which inhabited the country, or a geographical region to which the country belongs, at the time of conquest or colonization or the establishment of present State boundaries and who, irrespective of their legal status, retain some or all of their own social, economic, cultural and political institutions. Source: Convention (No 169) concerning Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in Independent Countries (adopted 27 June 1989, entry into force 5 September 1991) 1650 UNTS 383, Art. 1(1)(b).
Internally displaced persons
Persons or groups of persons who have been forced or obliged to flee or to leave their homes or places of habitual residence, in particular as a result of or in order to avoid the effects of armed conflict, situations of generalized violence, violations of human rights or natural or human-made disasters, and who have not crossed an internationally recognized State border. Source: Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, annexed to United Nations Commission on Human Rights, Report of the Representative of the Secretary-General, Mr Francis M. Deng, Submitted Pursuant to Commission Resolution 1997/39, Addendum (11 February 1998) UN Doc E/CN.4/1998/53/Add.2, 6.
International crimes
The most serious crimes of international concern, as referred to in particular in the Statute of the International Criminal Court and over which the Court has a jurisdiction which is complementary to national criminal jurisdictions. These crimes comprise: crimes against humanity, war crimes, crimes of aggression and genocide. Page 110.
International humanitarian law
A body of rules which seeks, for humanitarian reasons, to limit the effects of armed conflicts. It protects persons who are not or are no longer participating in hostilities and restricts the means and methods of warfare of belligerents by prohibiting weapons that make no distinction between combatants and civilians or weapons and methods of warfare which cause unnecessary injury, suffering and/or damage. Source: United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Glossary of Humanitarian Terms in Relation to the Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict (2003) pages 16 and 17.
International refugee law
The body of international treaties and customary international law that establishes standards for refugee protection. Thecornerstone of refugee law is the 1951 Convention and its 1967Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees.Source: United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, MasterGlossary of Terms (2006) page 14.
Jurisdiction
A government’s general power to exercise authority over all persons and things within its territory. Source: B.A. Garner (ed), Black’s Law Dictionary (10th edition, Westlaw, 2014).
Protracted displacement
A situation in which refugees, internally displaced persons (IDPs) and/or other displaced persons have been unable to return to their habitual residence for three years or more, and where the process for finding durable solutions, such as repatriation, integration in host communities, settlement in third locations or other mobility opportunities, has stalled. Source: N. Crawford, Jo. Cosgrave, S. Haysom and N. Walicki, Protracted Displacement: Uncertain Paths to Self-Reliance in Exile (Humanitarian Policy Group Commissioned Report, September 2015) page 10.
Push-pull factors
A model categorising the drivers of migration into push and pull factors, whereby push factors are those which drive people to leave their country and pull factors are those attracting them into the country of destination. Page 164.
Quarantine
The restriction of activities and/or separation from others of suspect persons who are not ill or of suspect baggage, containers, conveyances or goods in such a manner as to prevent the possible spread of infection or contamination. Source: World Health Organisation, International Health Regulations (2005) (3rd edition, 2016) page 9.
Racial discrimination
Any distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference based on race, colour, descent, or national or ethnic origin which has the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on an equal footing, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural or any other field of public life. Source: International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (adopted 21 December 1965, entered into force 4 January 1969) 660 UNTS 195, Art. 1(1).
Racism
Any theory, doctrine, ideology, or sets of ideas that assert a causal link between the phenotypic or genotypic characteristics of individuals or groups and their intellectual, cultural, and personality traits, including the false concept of racial superiority. Source: International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (adopted 21 December 1965, entered into force 4 January 1969) 660 UNTS 195, Art. 1(4).
Removal order
In the migration context, an administrative or a judicial decision or act ordering the enforcement of the obligation to return. Page 181.
Resettlement (refugees)
The transfer of refugees from the country in which they have sought protection to another State that has agreed to admit them – as refugees – with permanent residence status. Source: Adapted from United Nations High Commissioner for Ref Page 184.
Right to leave
An element of the right to freedom of movement that entails that everyone shall be free to leave any country, including one’s own. Source: Adapted from Universal Declaration of Human Rights (adopted 10 December 1948) UNGA Res 217(A), Art. 13(2).
Right to return
An element of the right to freedom of movement entailing that everyone shall be free to return to one’s own country. Page 187.
Separated children
Children, as defined in Article 1 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, who have been separated from both parents, or from their previous legal or customary primary caregiver, but not necessarily from other relatives. These may, therefore, include children accompanied by other adult family members. Page 195.
Sexual exploitation
Any actual or attempted abuse of a position of vulnerability, differential power, or trust, for sexual purposes, including, but not limited to, profiting monetarily, socially, or politically from the sexual exploitation of another. Source: United Nations Secretariat, Secretary-General’s Bulletin Special Measures for Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse (2003) UN Doc ST/SGB/2003/13, 1.
Sexual violence
Sexual violence is a form of gender-based violence and encompasses any sexual act, attempt to obtain a sexual act, unwanted sexual comments or advances, or acts to traffic, or otherwise directed against a person’s sexuality using coercion, by any person regardless of their relationship to the victim, in any setting. Sexual violence takes multiple forms and includes rape, sexual abuse, forced pregnancy, forced sterilization, forced abortion, forced prostitution, trafficking, sexual enslavement, forced circumcision, castration and forced nudity. Source: United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Sexual and Gender-Based Violence in the Context of Transitional Justice (2014) page 1.
Slavery
The status or condition of a person over whom any or all the powers attaching to the right of ownership are exercised. Source: Slavery Convention of 25 September 1926, amended by the Protocol (adopted 7 December 1953, entered into force 7 July 1955) 212 UNTS 17, Art. 1.
Smuggled migrant
A migrant who is or has been the object of the crime of smuggling, regardless of whether the perpetrator is identified, apprehended, prosecuted or convicted. Page 199.
Social inclusion
The process of improving the ability, opportunity, and dignity of people disadvantaged on the basis of their identity, to take part in society. Source: World Bank, Inclusion Matters: The Foundation for Shared Prosperity (2013) page 4.
Soft law
A phenomenon in international relations covering all those social rules generated by State(s) or other subjects of international law which are not legally binding but which are nevertheless of special legal relevance. Page 203.
Sovereignty
A concept of international law, sovereignty has three main expressions: external, internal and territorial. The external aspect of sovereignty is the right of the State freely to determine its relations with other States and other entities without the restraint or control of another State. This aspect of sovereignty is also known as independence. The internal aspect of sovereignty is the State’s exclusive right or competence to determine the character of its own institutions, to enact laws of its own choice and ensure their respect. The territorial aspect of sovereignty is the existence of rights over territory and the authority which a State exercises over all persons and things found on, under or above its territory. An aspect of territorial sovereignty relevant in the context of migration, is the sovereign prerogative of a State to determine the admission and exclusion of non-nationals to and from its territory, within the limits imposed by international law.
Sponsor
In the migration context, a person or entity who undertakes a (legal, financial or personal) engagement, promise or pledge to support the entry and stay of a non-national into the State. Page 205.
Stateless person
A person who is not considered as a national by any State under the operation of its law. Source: United Nations Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons ((adopted 28 September 1954, entered into force 6 June 1960) 360 UNTS 117) Art. 1.
Stranded migrant
Migrants who are unable to return to their country of origin, cannot regularise their status in the country where they reside, and do not have access to legal migration opportunities that would enable them to move on to another State. The term may also refer to migrants who are stranded because of humanitarian or security reasons in the country of destination, transit or origin preventing them to return home while they are also unable to go elsewhere. Page 209.
Trafficking in persons
The recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs. Source: Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, Supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (adopted 15 November 2000, entered into force 25 December 2003) 2237 UNTS 319, Art. 3(a).
Transnationalism
The concept of transnationalism refers to multiple ties and interactions linking people and institutions across State borders.Source: S. Vertovec, Conceiving and researching transnationalism,(1999) 22 Ethnic and Racial Studies 2, page 189.
Unaccompanied children
Children, as defined in Article 1 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, who have been separated from both parents and other relatives and are not being cared for by an adult who, bylaw or custom, is responsible for doing so.Source: Adapted from Committee on the Rights. Page 223.
Undocumented migrant
A non-national who enters or stays in a country without the appropriate documentation. Page 223.
War crimes
International crimes that include, in case of an international armed conflict a) grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, b) other serious violations of the laws and customs applicable in international armed conflict within the established framework of international law; in the case of an armed conflict not of an international character, a) serious violations of Article 3 common to the four Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949 committed against persons taking no active part in the hostilities, including members of armed forces who have laid down their arms and those placed hors de combat by sickness, wounds, detention or any other cause, and b) other serious violations of the laws and customs applicable in armed conflicts not of an international character, within the established framework of international law, as listed and defined in theRome Statue of the International Criminal Court. Page 231.
Work permit
A legal document issued by a competent authority of a State authorising a migrant worker to be employed in the country of destination during the period of validity of the permit. Page 232.