Wrocław in the Community of Practice on Migration and Human Rights

Upon invitiation by the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe, on June 29, 2023 in Strasbourg, members of the WCRS Intercultural Dialogue team took part in the first meeting of the Community of Practice on Migration and Human Rights.

The two-year project “Strengthening resilience in local and regional authorities facing migration challenges, under which the meeting was held, is an initiative of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities within the Council of Europe Action Plan on Protecting Vulnerable Persons in the Context of Migration and Asylum in Europe, with the financial contribution of Germany.

The Community of Practitioners for Migration and Human Rights, established as part of the project, brings together representatives of cities from 3 countries: Poland (Hrubieszów, Rzeszów and Wrocław), Edinet, the Republic of Moldova (Straseni and Vinogradovca) and Romania (Bogdan Vodă, Măgurele and Tulcea). The peer-to-peer exchange platform aims to identify the challenges faced by local authorities in terms of migration management and jointly develop practical tools to solve them.

Wrocław, along with Hrubieszów and Rzeszów, was chosen by the organisers as a representative of local authorities from Poland for the project creating the Community. The action is implemented jointly with the Association of Polish Cities (Związek Miast Polskich) and associations of local authorities from Moldova (Congress of Local Authorities from Moldova) and Romania (Association of Communes of Romania).

For our Intercultural Dialogue Team, participation in the project is a great honor. We are glad that our activities in the area of migrants’ integration have been recognised internationally. As Wroclaw’s Center for Social Development (WCRS), we will have the opportunity to share local experiences on migration in the next stages of the project and help develop appropriate guidelines, tools, and methodologies for migration management policies and practices. The final result of the project, in addition to research and analysis conducted by experts specialising in human rights, will be a CoE’s document encouraging states to create migration policies and take legislative action so that local actors are not left alone and can help themselves. In this way, the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe wants to initiate a dialogue between local and government authorities, which will result in the establishment of a legal framework best suited to current and future challenges.

The meeting was also an opportunity to exchange experiences with other members of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe. Eirini Dourou (Greece) and James Moloney (Ireland) shared with the Community their experiences on the reception and integration of migrants and refugees at the local level, and the representative of Rennes Métropole Marie Ange Orihuela presented the project “European Citizens’ Initiative for a dignified reception of migrants”.

More about the meeting in CoE’s newsroom : external link

Photo credits: Council of Europe