A new dawn for the human rights of international migrants? Protection of migrants’ rights in light of the UN’s SDGs and Global Compact for Migration

This paper undertakes a sceptical analysis of the significance for the protection of migrants’ rights represented by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2030 and the UN Global Compact for Migration (GCM). Despite the positive view taken by many of these frameworks, I argue that, taken together, the SDGs and the GCM represent an acknowledgement of the failure of the international system of human rights protection to deal effectively with the protection of migrants’ rights. With particular reference to the UN Migrant Workers Convention, I argue that adoption of the GCM underscores a decisive shift from the realm of binding international law to soft law for the purposes of dealing with migrants’ rights. While acknowledging some of the signal benefits of this new regime, I highlight some of the many signs suggesting that these twin international developments do not guarantee progress on the road to the protection of migrants’ rights.