The Committee on Migration's Advocacy Letter Opposing the U.S. Ban Preventing Citizens from Seven Predominantly Muslim Countries from Entering the U.S

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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

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The Committee on Migration's Advocacy Letter Opposing the U.S. Ban Preventing Citizens from Seven Predominantly Muslim Countries from Entering the U.S