The Human Rights of Migrants

The first part of the course examines the origin and development of human rights; it discusses its ethical foundation and examines some controversial aspects in the human rights discourse; it then examines the theological foundation of human rights and the relation between human rights and the rights of the poor. The second part focuses on the specific rights of migrants and refugees, recognized in international instruments such as the humanitarian instruments of the United Nations, the Geneva Convention on the rights of refugees, the ILO conventions on the rights of migrants, and in particular the Migrant Workers Convention. The course ends with the analysis of the rights of Filipino migrants as contained in RA 8042 and in RA 10022.