Mission & Vision
Our Principles
The Global Coalition on Migration (GCM) is a non-governmental, multi-sector organization of national, regional and international networks of migrant rights associations, migrant-led networks, policy, faith-based, labour and academic organizations.
It advocates for the human rights of migrants and their families and for human rights-based global policies through sharing strategies, empowering, mobilizing and coordinating common activities.
The core principles that empower and mobilize the members of the GCM are:
Upholding the centrality of human rights principles and perspectives
The promotion of migrant leadership
A commitment to build from the grassroots
The inclusivity of diverse sectors
Valuing the role of organized labour and labour rights
Collective Action
GCM emerged from the collaboration of its initial member organizations around the Global Forum on Migration (GFMD) and the corresponding People’s Global Action on Migration, Development & Human Rights (PGA) processes.
GCM creates a space for critical dialogue, networking and coordinated advocacy at a time of intense attention to migration. Global civil society movements need to have a strong presence, collective voice, and unified vision to advocate for the best possible global governance and policymaking around migration. The Coalition enables members to collectively chart tools and strategies to advance a rights-based migration agenda on critical issues, bridging national, regional and global levels of governance and building towards alignment on various issues.
GCM’s common vision and collective activities are:
Supporting movement-building with allies at local and regional levels to strengthen global perspectives and humane policies.
Recognition that development must be a people-centred and sustainable process that is just and equitable.
Engaging in building collective power, direct democracy and solidarity.
Facilitating education and consciousness-raising, capacity building and collective advocacy.
Board of Directors
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Carolina Gottardo
Carolina Gottardo is a feminist migrant lawyer and economist who has worked on human rights issues for more than 20 years in different countries and contexts. Her areas of specialisation are migration, asylum and gender. Carolina is the Executive Director of the International Detention Coalition (IDC) advocating to end immigration detention.
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Neha Misra
Neha joined the Solidarity Center in 1998 as the deputy country program director in Indonesia, where she managed the Solidarity Center’s counter-trafficking in persons, labor migration and democracy programs. Before joining the Solidarity Center, she worked in Bosnia and Herzegovina on postwar elections and democracy, and in the United States as a senior attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice.
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Dr Mamadou Goita
Dr Mamadou Goita is a development socio-economist and specialist in education and training systems. He is the Executive Director of the Institute for Research and Promotion of Alternatives in Development (IRPAD) and the Chair of the Pan African Network in Defense of Migrants Rights(PANiDMR).
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Christian Wolff
Christian Wolff is a political scientist working on issues related to development, migration, and displacement. Currently Programme Manager for Migration & Displacement at the ACT Alliance secretariat in Geneva, he has also worked, among others, for DanChurchAid, the University of Oxford, the International Rescue Committee (IRC), Save the Children, and the Carter Center.
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Michele LeVoy
As Director of PICUM, Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants, Michele has led the organization for nearly two decades in advocating for undocumented migrants’ human rights towards European and global institutions. Michele has played a key role as board member for several civil society organisations at the global and EU levels.
Our History
GCM was born out of global civil society and social movement processes on climate change, feminism, trade justice and intersectional issues.
Where We Started
The concept of the Global Coalition on Migration was born out of the collaborations of its initial member organizations around the Global Forum on Migration (GFMD) and the corresponding People’s Global Action on Migration, Development & Human Rights (PGA) processes since 2006, as well as other global civil society and social movement processes on climate change, feminism, trade justice and intersectional issues.
A need for a longer term global strategy was identified and GCM was proposed and formally launched in December 2011, in Geneva, Switzerland. During this period, the Migrants in Countries in Crisis Initiative (MCIC) was a multi-stakeholder, state-led consultative process to develop guidelines to better prepare and respond to the consequences of migrants caught in countries experiencing conflicts or natural disasters. MCIC was one of the GCM’s core campaigns between 2014-2018, in which the Coalition organized the Regional Civil Society Consultations and provided advisory input for the Civil Society Stakeholder Consultation.