The Migrant Workers Convention: Its Place in Human Rights Law

This article summarizes the relationship between the Migrant Workers Convention and the principal general instruments of human rights law. The Convention's vocabulary and complexity invite a measure of uncertainty. Responses to the special situation of undocumented workers are questionable. To initiate a better understanding of the Convention's prospective place in human rights law, the authors have prepared a chart that correlates the Convention's provisions with those in other instruments. The article then cites several examples to clarify four basic relationships between the Convention and corresponding provisions in other instruments: overlapping, extension of existing rights, creation of new rights, and limitation of existing rights. A concluding section acknowledges the possible effectiveness of the Convention, but raises additional issues. The authors suggest several alternatives for supplementing existing instruments in order to extend their protections more simply and explicitly to migrant workers.