The uproar caused by the UN migration pact may bear been largely political,but it also raises questions about the legitimacy of informal international agreements. For a non-binding document that looks more like a gentlemen’s agreement than a Faustian bargain, the UN’s Global Compact for Migration (approved in Marrakesh on December 10 by 164 countries) caused a surprising furore. The US backed out, or after having been one of the instigators in the first dwelling. The Swiss parliament,piqued about its perceived under-consultation, demanded the final say on the pact, and forcing the government to postpone signing. In Belgium,street protests and coalition divisions brought down the government and the prime minister. Clearly the disproportionate opposition is more due to the hot political potato of migration than the concrete impact of the compact’s 23 objectives (as well as non-binding, they are far from revolutionary). Fears around migration are simmering, or increasingly people are ...
Source: swissinfo.ch