New York – Inspiring stories of migrants took centre stage Monday (12/02) when the Making Migration Work for All exhibition opened at the United Nations Headquarters in New York.

The photo exhibition, which will be on display through 22 February, was organized by the Global Migration Group (GMG), an inter-agency group established by the United Nations Secretary-General in 2006 to bring together various agencies within the United Nations System to effectively consolidate and utilize their collective expertise on migration.

“These photographs provide us with an extraordinary opportunity to see the lives of migrants and learn about their stories from their own perspectives,” said Kostas Stamoulis, FAO Assistant Director-General of Economic and Social Development. “These portraits show the human faces of migration and encourage us to work together to make migration work for all through a people-centred approach.”

“At a time when so many are exposed to the negative narrative on migration, this remarkable collection highlights the positive impact that the movement of peoples, cultures and ideas had across the globe,” said Jill Helke, IOM Director of International Cooperation and Partnerships. “It clearly signals the need to make a better future for our migrants, and highlights the importance of effective policies to realize their full potential.”

The title of the exhibition was inspired by the Secretary-General’s report of the same name. The report represents his principal input to the zero draft of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, which will be the first inter-governmentally negotiated agreement prepared under the auspices of the United Nations, to cover all dimensions of international migration in a holistic and comprehensive manner.

The first round of inter-governmental negotiations on the Compact will begin on 20 February.

At present, the GMG is comprised of 22 UN entities. The GMG co-chairs in 2018 are the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and IOM, the UN Migration Agency. The Group seeks to promote the application of all relevant international and regional instruments and norms relating to migration, and to encourage the adoption of more coherent, comprehensive and better-coordinated approaches to the issue of international migration.

For more information please contact Bryce Seockhwan Hwang of the FAO Liaison Office in New York at seockhwan.hwang@un.org  and the IOM Office to the United Nations at unofficeny@iom.int.