Statelessness and the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration This policy brief is intended for those working on statelessness who want to know more about the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM) and how to engage with it. Why the Global Compact for Migration is relevant to NGOs working on statelessness There are three reasons why NGOs working on statelessness, including members of the European Network on Statelessness (ENS), should be interested in the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM). First, while most stateless persons have never crossed an international border, they are often subject to migration control measures.i This must be taken into account by those coordinating the future of global migration governance. Second, migration can often put people at risk of statelessness. The GCM’s goal of safe, orderly and regular migration must include reducing the risk of statelessness associated with migration and ensuring that stateless persons have access to regular migration routes. Third, advocacy in these areas would benefit from an understanding of developments in the global migration governance infrastructure, particularly the changes surrounding the adoption of the GCM. Historical Context There has been cooperation among United Nations Member States in many areas of migration and many existing treaties include State commitments with regard to migrants, but there has not been an overarching approach. This was reflected in the 2002 ‘Doyle Report’ for example, which was commissioned by then UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, and uncovered substantial scope for improvement in cooperation on migration and suggested ways forward for more coherent institutions and processes. This led to the creation of the Global Commission on International Migration (GCIM) which organised consultations and then produced a further report on ‘Migration in an Interconnected World’ in 2005, reiterating the need for coherence.ii The early 2000s saw a transition in framing from ‘migration’ to ‘migration and development’.iii One result was the holding of ‘High Level Dialogues on International Migration and Development’ (HLDs) in 2006 and 2013. At the first HLD, UN Member States agreed that they would be willing to meet to discuss best practices of migration governance, but outside the remit of the UN. This led to an annual Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD). This has occurred every year since, hosted by a different Member State or most recently, a pair of Member States. Global civil society has played an increasing role in the GFMD. Since 2008, this has included more formalised opportunities for such movements to participate in agenda-setting and since 2011, for controlled spaces for representatives of global civil society and States to meet to discuss migration governance. In the 2013 HLD there was substantially more symbolic inclusion of civil society voices than had been possible in 2006, though this was still constrained.iv Since then, the context in which global migration governance is discussed has changed significantly. 2 of 10