The World Leadership Alliance – Club de Madrid (WLA – CdM) participated in the United Nations (UN) Intergovernmental Conference to Adopt the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly, and Regular Migration from 8th to 11th of December in Marrakech, Morocco.
A number of members of WLA – CdM attended various dialogues and side-events of the Intergovernmental Conference held in Marrakech. They were Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, Mary Robinson, Michelle Bachelet, and Antonio Guterres.
The German Chancellor Angela Merkel was present to witness this agreement, with Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, Manuela Carmena, Mayor of Madrid, Louise Arbour, UN Special Representative for International Migration, and Antonio Vitorino, International Organization for Migration (IOM) General Director. Most members highlighted the non-binding aspect of the Global Compact. The most important aspect is having an international tool about migration and the relevance of the topic for relations among the countries, development and security, among others.
Johnson-Sirleaf, Former President of Liberia, placed the emphasis on the contribution to the global economy and denounced the abuse and exploitation caused by the decrease of free movement in Libya and other Mediterranean nations. The Spanish Prime Minister declared the opening of Fund for migrant’s integration and a conference about Desertification and Migration that will be held in Almeria, Spain in the next year. Additionally, Manuela Carmena appealed for UN’s support to make origin and host cities closer to facilitate migrant’s settlement.
In the time of the second day of the Conference, a Shared Societies Project agent, Clem McCartney, arbitrated in the dialogues aspect of the Conference, which were created parallel with the general plenary, exposing WLA – CdM Members’ support and enthusiasm to the Global Compact adoption, in accordance with main points highlighted in the Open Letter signed by WLA – CdM Members, Alfred Gusembauer and Mehdi Jomaa.
In addition to human and social issues, WLA – CdM is also involved in AI. WLA – CdM is cooperating with Boston Global Forum and Michael Dukakis Institute to develop the AIWS 7-Layer Model.
