Migrants and Refugees: A New Model Treaty for International Mobility

By
University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law
October 26, 2017

University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law

While people are as mobile as they ever were in our globalized world, the movement of people across borders lacks global regulation. International mobility has no common definition or legal framework.

To address this key gap in international law, the “Model International Mobility Convention” proposes a framework for mobility that establishes both the minimum rights afforded to all people who cross state borders as visitors and the special rights afforded to tourists, students, missionaries, diplomats, business people, labor and economic migrants, family members, forced migrants and refugees as a consequence of their status. The goal of the Convention is to reaffirm the existing rights afforded to mobile people (and the corresponding rights and responsibilities of states) as well as to expand those basic rights (where warranted) in order to address growing gaps in protection and responsibility that are leaving people vulnerable.