PICUM
PICUM (the Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants) is a non-governmental organization that aims to promote respect for the human rights of undocumented migrants within Europe.[1] PICUM also seeks to dialogue with organizations and networks with similar concerns in other parts of the world (it has over 100 affiliated and 107 ordinary members in approximately 25 countries in Europe and beyond).
History
The initiative to establish PICUM was taken in the late 1990s by grassroots organisations from Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany. People from these organisations met each other frequently at European meetings on asylum and shared the same concern. Most of their clients weren’t asylum seekers; they were actually undocumented migrants. They found that there was a real vacuum in Europe regarding undocumented migrants and so set about creating a platform to represent them at EU level.
Activities
PICUM ’s activities are focused in five main areas:
- Monitoring and reporting: improving the understanding of issues related to the protection of the human rights of undocumented migrants;
- capacity-building: developing the capacities of NGOs and other involved actors;
- advocacy: influencing policy makers to include undocumented migrants in social and integration policies on the national and European levels;
- awareness-raising: promoting and disseminating the values and practices underlying the protection of the human rights of undocumented migrants and
- global actors on international migration: developing and contributing to the international dialogue on international migration within the different UN agencies, international organizations, and civil society organizations.
PICUM ’s monthly newsletter on issues concerning the human rights of undocumented migrants is produced in seven languages and circulates to PICUM ’s network of more than 2,400 civil society organizations, individuals and beyond.
Membership of NGO networks
PICUM is a member of the following global and European NGO networks:
- Migrants Rights International (NGO and federation of migrants’ and migrants’ rights organizations, trade unions and faithbased groups within the various global regions promoting the human rights of migrants)
- Social Platform (network promoting social justice and participatory democracy)
- NGO Platform (network of Brussels-based NGOs in the field of migration and asylum)
- European Platform for Migrant Workers’ Rights (platform advocating for better promotion and protection of the human rights of all migrant workers and their families)
- European Anti-Poverty Network (representative network of NGOs and groups involved in the fight against poverty and social exclusion in the EU)
- Platform for Children’s Rights (informal grouping of NGOs, UN agencies and EU institutions with the primary interest of exchanging information on children’s rights initiatives at the EU level).
Notes
- ^ S. Michael Lynk; Craig, John (2006). Globalization and the future of labour law. Cambridge: Cambridge University Library. p. 430. ISBN 0-521-85490-3.