On July 8, 2017, the official opening of the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal Session on The violations with impunity of the Human Rights of Migrants and Refugee peoples (program) was carried out in the city of Barcelona.
The opening act has been promoted by a social platform that includes more than 100 organizations, associations and social movements (see the list of the endorsment) which have been convened by the Transnational Migrant Platform (TMP) and the Transnational Institute of Amsterdam (TI).
The call for action disseminated by TMP and TI focuses its reasons on the necessity “to give visibility to the people of migrant persons as an inviolable subject of rights; to identify and judge the “chain” of co-responsibility along the migratory route leading to the violation of migrant people’s human rights; and to urgetly provide and foster adequate misures for access to justice”.
The complexity and the wide spectrum of problems and challenges crossing the migration have required a Session inspired by the previous ones on Colombia (2006-2008) and Mexico (2011-2014), conceived as process of participation, documentation and denunciation, and articulated in thematic hearings.
The public launching event in Barcelona has aimed to argue the urgency of a judgment, although symbolic, of those policies denying the rights of migrants and refugee people, promoted by the international community, the European Union and the Member States, in contrast with their obligations in terms of prevention, respect, protection and guarantees of non-repetition.
The Indictment presented to the Tribunal has been supported by a broad spectrum of testimonies and exemplary cases that have reconstructed the structural factors and policies that determine the vulnerability, dependency, disappearance and denial of the future of migrants and refugee people.
The general structure and doctrinal orientation of the Indictment has been built around the need to investigate and document the root causes of migration and forced displacement; routes and violations of human rights; the border regime; the policies of exclusion characterizing the Fortress Europe, with special attention to the transversal factors, which are the gender issue and the minors.
In its concluding remarks, the panel of judges of the PPT, composed by Bridget Anderson (UK), Carlos Beristain (Spain), Jennifer Chiriga (Zimbabwe), Leticia Gutiérrez (Mexico), has made reference to doctrinal aspects of migration, shared experiences of resistance and has formulated, for this Session, perspectives and methodology of work, in consideration of the PPT mission and jurisprudence.
As stated by Gianni Tognoni, Secretary General of the PPT, “this opening Session, which will be concluded by the end of 2018, requires a significant extension of the support networks, an intensified collaboration with groups of experts in the different sectors, a rigorous coordination of the various steps and initiatives. This process aims to become a tool for active presence in society, a cultural, political and legal literacy, an indispensable condition for the recognition of migrant and refugee people as inviolable subjects of law”.
For more information: ppt@permanentpeoplestribunal.org