100^th Session of the IOM Council

Statement by H.E. Mr. Idriss Jazaïry,

Permanent Representative of Algeria, as outgoing Chairman of the IOM Council 

 (Geneva– 5-7 December 2011)

Excellencies,

Mr. Director General,

Madam Deputy Director General,

Distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen

It is an honor and a privilege to welcome you all to this 100^th session of IOM Council.

I would like to extend a special welcome to the honorable Ministers and distinguished delegates who joined us today to celebrate the 60^th anniversary of IOM.

I am confident that the High Level Segment of this session will provide us with the necessary political vision in our dialogue on the challenges and opportunities of human mobility and migration management priorities.

The celebration of IOM’s 60^th anniversary will be certainly an excellent occasion for assessing IOM’s role and responsibilities to ensure that the Organization will continue to effectively and efficiently respond to the needs of States and migrants in a rapidly changing global world.

I take this opportunity to congratulate our Director General and the Deputy Director General for their inspiring leadership and continued commitment to the goals of collective action in favor of migrants all over the world. I wish to express also our appreciation to the staff of IOM worldwide for their dedication to the service of the Organization.

Since its creation, IOM has extended the scope and increased the depth of its activities.

The Organization’s migration management services are being delivered today in areas as crucial and varied as counter-trafficking, resettlement, assisted voluntary repatriation, technical cooperation, labor migration and emergency and post-crisis migration.

My predecessors as Chairmen of the Council and I myself have witnessed the continued expansion of IOM’s programs, activities and membership over the past few years. I have been particularly impressed by lean management of the Secretariat and by its responsiveness to humanitarian emergencies.

Many States both developed and developing have expressed to me the high regard they have, as recipients for the services of the Organization. This appreciation of the importance and the benefits of joining the Organization is also evidenced by the accession of fourteen new Member States during this session. I welcome the new member States and look forward to seeing more States joining IOM in the future.

These positive developments occur, however, in a context of continuing global economic and financial crisis that have an adverse impact on migration but also require more action by IOM.

The year 2011 has been a challenging year for IOM as it has had to respond to several humanitarian emergencies simultaneously in Côte d’Ivoire, the Horn of Africa, and Libya.

I wish to commend IOM particularly for its prompt action during the Libyan crisis by evacuating more than 200.000 migrant workers fleeing violence to, or through, the neighboring countries in North Africa.

During my memorable visit to Pakistan in August 2011, I have witnessed the huge migration challenges being faced by the Organization at field level. These challenges are also encountered at different degrees in other field locations.

IOM has already embarked on a series of reforms initiated by Director General Swing upon assuming his mandate in 2008 to face these challenges.

The reforms address the important issues of institutional structuring, budget and human resources.

Member States have unanimously welcomed the promising reform process.

IOM has successfully completed in the course of 2011 the structure reform process both at the Headquarter and at the Field levels. The new configuration will certainly enable the Organization to better respond to the increasing demand on its migration services. I would like to express, in this regard, deep appreciation to the Deputy Director General, Mrs. Laura Thompson, for her stewardship over this process.

As Chair of the Working Group of IOM Budget Reform, I am satisfied with the two important decisions taken within this Group respectively to establish a migration emergency funding mechanism and to add contributions from new Member States to the administrative part of the budget. Two draft resolutions are before the Council for consideration in this regard.

The humanitarian crisis witnessed in 2011 highlighted the constraints that limited funding imposes on IOM’s capacity to deliver emergency assistance. Therefore, these two proposals have proven to be timely.

But the issues we seek to address are often complex and multifaceted.

We must now build on the consensus we were successful in achieving on the way forward on substantive issues and on the progress made so far by the Working Group. We are confident in particular that the Member States will be able to address the remaining longstanding issue of financing of the core functions of the Administration. These are currently funded to a great extent by the overhead income, supposed to fund more migration-related projects.

I would like to seize this opportunity to address an appeal to Member States. I appeal to them to make every efforts to find solutions to the nagging issue of arrears. The Director General committed himself to resolving this issue in the coming year. Clearing arrears owed by Member States due to the administrative part of the budget is a priority objective. Member States in a position to do so are also invited to consider contributing or increasing the amount of their contribution to the 1035 Facility which is a vital tool to finance capacity building projects in developing countries and countries in transition.

I look forward to the officialisation of a more appealing new name for this Fund.

Once again, I thank you all for the trust you placed in my country Algeria and in me through having elected me as Council Chairman for the past year.

I thank the members of the Bureau, the distinguished Permanent Representatives of Austria, Columbia respectively the First and the Second Vice-Chairs and Bangladesh as the Rapporteur, for their support and assistance extended to me all over the year.

I pay tribute to the OIM staff for their dedication and professionalism and commend Member States for their flexibility and openness in dealing with our reform process throughout the year.

With these few remarks, I shall conclude by wishing all of you fruitful deliberations and every success to the next elected Chairperson and happy 60^th birthday to IOM.

I thank you.