The Committee on Migration's Advocacy Letter Opposing the U.S. Ban Preventing Citizens from Seven Predominantly Muslim Countries from Entering the U.S.
Read or download the letter in full below.
______________________________________________________________
Your Excellency!
The NGO Committee on Migration is a member of the Conference of Non-Governmental Organizations (CoNGO) in consultative relationship with the United Nations Economic and Social Council. The mission of the NGO Committee on Migration is to encourage the protection and promotion of migrants’ human rights, in accordance with the United Nations Charter.
We now find that those fundamental human rights have been violated by the summary Executive Order of a Member State prohibiting migration from seven selected countries with Muslim majorities. Ostensibly an instrument to protect a country from potential terrorism, the injunction prohibits all migration from the designated states, even by those holding valid entry permits in multiple categories, including refugees fully vetted by a strenuous process frequently lasting several years. Many of these were forbidden to board planes for their destinations; they were forcibly removed from planes; they were forced to sign papers in a language they did not understand, thereby renouncing their right to enter the country of their destination; they were stranded at airports and forcibly detained for hours and even days.
The decree, which was arbitrarily and summarily enforced, is clearly in violation of several of the UN Conventions prohibiting discrimination on the basis of religion, nationality or race. On a personal level this decree would rip apart families whose only hope against the appalling injuries they have already suffered has been eventual reunification; it would deny children the opportunity for growth through peaceful education and development; it would deny students, scholars, artists and writers the opportunities for the fruitful imaginative and creative interactions with their peers which enrich our intellectual, social and cultural lives; it would deny the potential contributions of such migrants to the development of crucial technology; it would deny us all many of the entrepreneurial projects which build a country’s economy; it would deny the country the care-giving which is sorely needed equally for its children and its aging population. It is an arbitrary, xenophobic, profoundly harmful act which in its disregard for promises, its violation of fundamental and dearly cherished human rights and humane values diminishes us all. It creates division, demonizes and stigmatizes as potential terrorists a particular group of people on the sole basis of their religion, ethnicity and national origin. It sows fear, suspicion and instability everywhere.
We call upon the United Nations and the 193 nations of which it is composed, born of the wreckage of war, xenophobia, hatred and violence, to condemn this unjust and injurious decree and to work peaceably with all the countries concerned to bring about a sane, measured and peaceful solution to benefit all nations and all peoples everywhere.
Maria Pia Belloni-Mignatti,
Chair, NGO Committee on Migration
Signatories
Armenian Constitutional Rights Protective Centre (ACRPC)
Athletes United for Peace
ATOP Meaningful World/Fordham University
Augustinians International
Casa Generalizia della Società del Sacro Cuore (Society of the Sacred Heart)
Center for Women’s Global Leadership, Rutgers University
Comisión Argentina para Refugiados y Migrantes (CAREF)
Congregation of the Mission
Congregation of Our Lady of the Good Shepherd
Congregations of St. Joseph
Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul
Dianova International
Dominican Leadership Conference
The Drammeh Institute
The eQuality Project
Edmund Rice International
FAWCO
Franciscans International
Global Alliance for Women’s Health
Global Network of Women Peacebuilders
Graduate Women International (NYREP)
Human Rights Advocates
Institute for International Women’s Rights (Manitoba)
Institute for Multicultural Counseling and Educational Services (IMCES)
International Alliance of Women
International Association of Applied Psychology (IAAP)
International Association of Schools of Social Work
International Council of Psychologists
International Federation of Business and Professional Women
International Federation of Settlements and Neighborhood Centers
International Lactation Consultant Association
International Presentation Association
Journalist and Writers Foundation
League of Women Voters of the United States
Loretto Community
MADRE
Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers
Maryknoll Sisters of St. Dominic
Medical Mission Sisters
Medical Women’s International Association
The MiRA Resource Center for Black, Immigrant and Refugee Women
NGO Health Committee
Pacific Women’s Watch (New Zealand), Inc.
Pan Pacific & South East Asia Women’s Association
Partnership for Global Justice
Passionists International
Poverty Elimination and Community Education (PEACE) Foundation
Programme d’Aide aux Migrants Ouest-Africaine (PAMOA) (West African Migrant Assistance
Programme (WAMAP)
Rehabilitation and Development Organization for the Landless (RADOL)
Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary
Research Center for Feminist Action
Royal Commonwealth Society for the Blind
Schools without Borders
Shanta Memorial Rehabilitation Centre
Sheba USA
Sisters of Charity Federation
Sisters of Charity of New York
Sisters of Charity of Saint Elizabeth, Office of Peace, Justice, and Ecological Integrity
Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur
St. Joan’s International Alliance
The Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (SPSSI)
Sociologists for Women in Society (SWS)
Soroptimist International
21st Century Community Empowerment for Youth and Women Initiative
UNA-USA
University Settlement Society of New York
USA-Mali Charitable Association of NYC
Virginia Gildersleeve International Fund
Womensport International
WARBE Development Foundation
Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF)
World Christian Life Community
World Federation for Mental Health
World Organization for Early Childhood Education (OMEP)
Zonta International