TRIANGLE in ASEAN

Virtual Open Session at the ASEAN Committee on Migrant Workers (ACMW) Workshop on Planning for the Action Plan in 2021-2025, and online preparatory meetings

TRIANGLE in ASEAN supports three parallel preparatory workshops for Workers organizations (ASEAN Trade Union Council, ATUC), Employers organizations (ASEAN Conference of Employers, ACE), and the Civil Society (Task Force on ASEAN Migrant Workers, TF-AMW), to prepare for the Virtual Open Session. The preparatory meetings aim to:

- Introduce the process for the development of the new ACMW Work Plan 2021-2025
- Discuss lessons learned in implementing the ongoing ACMW Work Plan 2016-2020, and
- To support the Workers organizations, the Employers organizations, and Civil Society Organizations in developing their priorities for the ACMW Work Plan activities and their proposals for partnering in their implementation.

The Virtual Open Session at the ACMW Workshop on Planning for the Action Plan in 2021-2025 on 22 and 23 July 2020 will be hosted by the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs of Viet Nam (MOLISA) with the support of the ASEAN Secretariat and TRIANGLE in ASEAN, a partnership between the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), the Global Affairs Canada (GAC), and ILO. The Open Session aims to exchange information and explore collaboration to support ACMW in the implementation of the Action Plan 2018-2025 of the ASEAN Consensus on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers.

Background

The year 2020 is a landmark year for the ASEAN Committee on the Implementation of the ASEAN Declaration on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers (ACMW), and many other ASEAN sectoral bodies. They will be reviewing their past work and developing their new Work Plans for 2021-2025. In addition, the year 2020 will see a mid-term review of the ASEAN Community Vision 2025.

The Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA), Viet Nam, the 2020 Chair of the ACMW, committed to leading development of the ACMW Work Plan 2021-2025 in a consultative way. To this end, MOLISA hosted a Virtual Open Session on Planning for the Action Plan in 2021-2025, with support from the ASEAN Secretariat and the ILO’s TRIANGLE in ASEAN programme. Representatives of regional employers’, workers’and civil society organizations (CSOs), development partners and donors joined this consultation.

The ACMW is an ASEAN sectoral body responsible for implementing the 2007 ASEAN Declaration on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers (Cebu Declaration) and the 2017 ASEAN Consensus on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers (ASEAN Consensus). The current ACMW Work Plan 2016-2020 includes 15 projects under four thematic areas, including

- governing mechanisms of labour mobility
- social protection of migrant workers
- protection and promotion of the rights of migrant workers
- labour dimensions of trafficking in persons

The new ACMW 2021-2025 Work Plan will be developed under the broader framework of the cross-sectoral ASEAN Consensus Action Plan 2018-2025, which defines five broad categories, namely

- education/ information
- protection
- enforcement
- recourse
- reintegration

The ACMW is a subsidiary body of the ASEAN Labour Ministers Meeting (ALMM) under the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community (ASCC).