A Human Rights Perspective on the Vulnerability of Migrants

The universality, which paradigmatically characterises human rights, becomes especially significant when linked to the field of migrations. In order to prevent and combat migrant vulnerability, migration policies and legal statutes need to respect certain inviolable limits. This paper proposes an analytical and critical review of the international framework of migrant rights, starting with the basic instruments of the United Nations and then delving into the European and Inter-American systems for the protection of human rights in the case of migrants. The aim of this paper is to show why it is imperative to strengthen international human rights law –by invoking and exercising it in an environment that systematically distorts it– in order to overcome the vulnerability that recurrently affects migrants.

Keywords: Human rights, International human rights law, Legal systems of protection, Migrants, Public policies, Vulnerability.