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Add to Preferred SourcesLike many of its hemispheric neighbors, Brazil cherishes its heritage as a nation of migrants. Today Latin America’s biggest economy – and largest population – continues to uphold that heritage as both a destination and transit nation for hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children annually, as well as being a sender of its own migrants worldwide.
Those are all strong factors behind IOM, the UN Migration Agency’s decision this month to sign an agreement with Brazil’s National Association of Federal Judges (AJUFE by its Portuguese acronym) to implement a project to improve judges’ technical capacity and expand migrants’ access to rights, with a special attention to women and vulnerable migrants. The Agreement was signed by AJUFE’s President, Fernando Marcelo Mendes and IOM Brazil Chief of Mission, Stephane Rostiaux, on 6 September 2018.
AJUFE´s Mendes explained that the partnership with IOM is paramount to the joint development of topics regarding migrants’ access to justice. He added: “With the agreement, we aim to contribute to strengthen capacities to investigate and prosecute human trafficking and to give back citizenship to those migrants in vulnerable situations imposed by humanitarian crises.”
The first two outcomes of the agreement will be the inclusion of 20 federal judges in an online training on the introduction to international migration to be held between October and December 2018, and the promotion of a capacity building workshop in December 2018.
According to Rostiaux, the judicial branch is a fundamental player in the protection of individual and collective rights of migrants. “The partnership with AJUFE allows IOM to move towards its goal of making migration dignified, safe and orderly for the benefit of migrants and society.”
In the wake of completing successful projects in partnership with Brazil’s Office of the Federal Public Defenders and its Office of Federal Prosecutors, this new agreement marks the first time IOM will have a dedicated project for Brazil’s federal judges.
IOM and AJUFE plan to extend the partnership in 2019 with new capacity-building efforts.
Original source: IOM
Published on 11 September 2018