IOM Unbound?: Obligations and Accountability of the International Organization for Migration in an Era of Expansion

Cover
Half-title page
Title page
Copyright page
Contents
List of Contributors
Foreword
Acknowledgements
Table of Cases
Table of Statutes and Treaties
List of Abbreviations and Acronyms
1 Introduction: IOM Unbound? Obligations and Accountability of the International Organization for Migration in an Era of Expansion
1.1 From Modest Beginnings to an Era of Expansion
1.2 A Watershed Moment? IOM Becomes a ‘Related Organization’ in the UN System
1.3 Core Concepts
1.3.1 Obligations
1.3.2 Accountability
1.3.3 Expansion, Ethos, and Institutional Culture
1.4 Key Themes and Tensions
1.4.1 Bound, Unbound? Grounding Assessments of IOM in International Law
1.4.2 IOM as a Norm Breaker, Taker, and Shaper
1.4.3 IOM as a Protection Actor
1.4.4 Towards More Complex Accounts of Institutional Change at IOM
1.5 Structure and Scope
1.6 Implications: Time for Constitutional Reform
Part I IOM’s Mandate, Structure, and Relationship with the UN
2 Who and What Is IOM For? The Evolution of IOM’s Mandate, Policies, and Obligations
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Interpreting IO Mandates and Obligations: Political and Legal Perspectives
2.3 IOM’s Establishment and Constitutional Developments
2.3.1 Constitutional Amendments
2.4 IOM’s Internal Policies: Shifting Conceptions of the Organization’s Purpose and Obligations
2.4.1 Assessing the Significance of IOM’s Internal Policies: Legal Perspectives
2.4.2 Legitimation through Internal Policymaking: Perspectives from IR Theory
2.5 Conclusion: Who and What Is IOM For? Updating Assumptions and Expectations
3 The (Possible) Responsibility of IOM under International Law
3.1 Introduction
3.2 The Vacuum Assumption
3.3 Tropes Underlying the Law
3.4 Internationally Wrongful Acts: Some Problems
3.5 A Bird’s Eye View on ARIO: Answering a Different Issue
3.6 An Excursion into IOM Mechanisms
3.7 Conclusion
4 An Assessment of IOM’s Human Rights Obligations and Accountability Mechanisms
4.1 Introduction
4.2 IOM’s Competences and Activities
4.3 The Need for Accountability
4.3.1 The Human Rights Obligations of IOM
4.3.1.1 Human Rights and the IOM Constitution
4.3.1.2 Treaty-based Human Rights Obligations for IOM?
4.3.1.3 IOM Human Rights Obligations under General International Law
4.3.2 The Potential for Human Rights Violations by IOM
4.4 IOM’s Accountability Mechanisms
4.4.1 An Overview
4.4.2 The Analysis and Assessment Framework
4.4.2.1 Access
4.4.2.2 Participation
4.4.2.3 Neutrality
4.4.2.4 Outcome
4.4.3 IOM Office of the Inspector General
4.4.3.1 Access
4.4.3.2 Participation
4.4.3.3 Neutrality
4.4.3.4 Outcome
4.4.3.5 Overall Assessment
4.4.4 Domestic Courts
4.5 Conclusion
5 A Human Rights Due Diligence Policy for IOM?
5.1 Introduction
5.2 IOM and Human Rights: Where Do We Stand?
5.2.1 A Normative Framework of a Non-normative Nature?
5.2.2 Controversial Practices of IOM
5.2.3 The Formalized Relationship with the UN and Its Impact on IOM’s Engagement with Human Rights
5.3 The UN Human Rights Due Diligence Policy as an Answer?
5.3.1 The Preliminary Question: Is the Human Rights Due Diligence Policy Applicable to IOM?
5.3.2 The Potential Contribution of the Human Rights Due Diligence Policy
5.3.3 Limitations of the Human Rights Due Diligence Policy
5.4 Conclusion
6 The Legal Relationship between the UN and IOM: What Has Changed since the 2016 Cooperation Agreement?
6.1 Introduction
6.2 What Is ‘UN-Related’ Status and When Did IOM Achieve It?
6.3 Why a New Agreement?
6.4 What Does the 2016 Agreement Change? The 1996 and 2016 Agreements Compared
6.4.1 What Does Article 2(5) Achieve?
6.5 How the Organizations Continue to Differ: The IOM Constitution and the UN Charter
6.6 Addressing the Disconnect: The Path Forward
Part II IOM in Action
7 Crisis and Change at IOM: Critical Juncture, Precedents, and Task Expansion
7.1 Introduction
7.2 Historical Institutionalism and International Organizations
7.2.1 Critical Junctures and Path Dependence
7.2.2 Assumptions about International Organizations and IOM
7.3 The Critical Juncture: IOM in the Gulf War
7.3.1 Permissive and Productive Conditions: Understanding IOM’s Gulf War Operations
7.3.2 The Short- and Long-Term Institutional Consequences of IOM’s Gulf War Operations
7.3.3 Path-Dependent Reproduction of IOM’s Expansionary Logic in Libya and West Africa
7.3.3.1 Setting New Best Practices in Libya
7.3.3.2 IOM’s Venture into Global Health Crisis Management: The 2014–2016 Ebola Outbreak
7.4 Conclusion
8 How IOM Reshaped Its Obligations on Climate-Related Migration
8.1 Obligation in International Organizations
8.2 Obligations in IOM
8.2.1 Mandate
8.2.2 Financing
8.3 IOM and Climate Change (2000–2014)
8.3.1 Natural Disasters and Humanitarian Operations
8.3.2 Attempted Mandate Change
8.3.3 Secretariat Staff Led Expansion
8.3.4 Operational Expansion
8.3.5 Mandate Change
8.4 Conclusion
9 The International Organization for Migration as a Data Entrepreneur: The Displacement Tracking Matrix and Data Responsibility Deficits
9.1 Introduction
9.2 From the ‘Datafication of Migration’ to the Need for Data Responsibility in Migration and Displacement
9.3 IOM and the Market for Migration and Displacement Data
9.4 The Displacement Tracking Matrix
9.4.1 Origins and Evolution
9.4.2 Institutional Set-Up and Funding
9.4.3 Data Collection and Data Quality
9.4.4 The DTM’s Core Humanitarian Function
9.5 Showing Success through Numbers: The Political Functions of DTM Data
9.5.1 DTM ‘Mobility Tracking’ in Haiti, 2010–2014
9.5.2 DTM ‘Flow Monitoring’ in West and Central Africa Since 2016
9.6 Risks and Pathologies: Mapping Out Key Concerns
9.6.1 Insufficient Protection of Data in Field Settings
9.6.2 ‘Erasure’ of Populations with Enduring Needs
9.6.3 Crowding Out Development-Oriented Data Collectors
9.6.4 Feeding into Perceptions of Migration as a Threat
9.6.5 IOM’s Data Protection Standards: Fit for Purpose?
9.7 Recommendations for Reform
10 IOM and Ethical Labour Recruitment
10.1 IOM and Labour Migration Governance
10.1.1 IOM’s Approach to Labour Migration
10.1.2 IOM as ‘UN Migration’
10.2 Case Study: IOM/IRIS and Ethical Labour Recruitment
10.3 IRIS: Challenges and Opportunities for a Rights-Based Approach
10.3.1 The Perils of Governance by Audit
10.3.2 Abdicating State Responsibility to Protect Migrant Workers’ Rights
10.3.3 A Better Direction
10.4 Conclusion
11 The International Organization for Migration in Humanitarian Scenarios
11.1 Introduction
11.2 The Nature of IOM
11.2.1 IOM Field Operations
11.2.2 IOM and Its ‘Related Organization’ Status with the United Nations
11.2.3 National Prioritization and the Development Actors
11.3 IOM’s 2015 Humanitarian Policy on Principles for Humanitarian Action and Related Documents60
11.4 Conclusion
12 IOM’s Engagement with the UN Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement
12.1 Introduction
12.2 The International Protection of Internally Displaced Persons
12.3 IOM’s Justification for Its Activities with Internally Displaced Persons
12.4 IOM Policies and the GPs
12.4.1 Explicit Engagement
12.4.2 Advancing the Pursuit of Durable Solutions?
12.5 Putting the GPs into Practice?
12.5.1 Experiences in Haiti
12.5.1.1 Camp Coordination and Camp Management
12.5.1.2 Camp Closures
12.5.2 Experiences in Iraq
12.6 Conclusion
13 IOM’s Immigration Detention Practices and Policies: Human Rights, Positive Obligations and Humanitarian Duties
13.1 Introduction
13.2 Immigration Detention and International Human Rights Law
13.3 IOM’s Normative Role on Immigration Detention
13.3.1 IOM and States’ Detention ‘Prerogative’
13.3.2 ATDs as an Obligation or a Desirable Option?
13.3.3 Acronymic Ambiguities: ‘AVR’ as an ‘ATD’
13.3.4 IOM and the Global Compact on Migration
13.4 IOM’s Operational Practices in Immigration Detention
13.4.1 IOM’s Role in US Interdiction and Detention in the Caribbean (1990s–2000s)
13.4.2 IOM’s Role in Australia’s ‘Pacific Solution’ (2001–2007)
13.4.3 IOM’s Role in Australian-Funded Immigration Detention and ATDs in Indonesia (2000–2020)
13.4.4 Detention in Libya: IOM, the EU’s Containment Practices and Mass Human Rights Violations (2007–Present)
13.5 IOM, Human Rights and Humanitarianism in Detention Contexts
13.6 Conclusions on Constitutional and Institutional Reform
14 IOM and ‘Assisted Voluntary Return’: Responsibility for Disguised Deportations?
14.1 Introduction
14.2 IOM and AVR
14.3 The (D)evolving Definition of Assisted Voluntary Return
14.4 Freedom of Choice
14.4.1 NA v. Finland before the European Court of Human Rights
14.4.2 Lessons from Other Areas of Law
14.5 Information
14.6 Consent and Voluntariness as Process
14.7 Further Considerations
14.8 Conclusions and Proposals for Reform
15 Holding IOM to Account: The Role of International Human Rights Advocacy NGOs
15.1 Introduction
15.2 Context: IOM’s Accountability Deficit and the Potential Roles of Human Rights NGOs in Holding IOs Accountable
15.3 Interactions between IOM and International Advocacy NGOs: Key Patterns
15.3.1 Contrasting Engagement with IOM and UNHCR
15.3.2 2002–2007: Modest but Increased Attention from Major Human Rights NGOs
15.3.3 2008–2021: Reduced Engagement from Advocacy NGOs
15.4 Why Are Many Human Rights NGOs Disengaged from IOM?
15.4.1 Implications of Institutional Developments and Diverse Standards of Accountability
15.4.2 Consequences of IOM’s Mandate and Structure for NGO Accountability Efforts
15.4.3 Dependency on IOM as a Data Source and Gatekeeper
15.5 Conclusion: Strengthening Advocacy NGOs’ Contributions to IOM Accountability
Index