Specialization: MIGRATION, HUMAN RIGHTS AND GOVERNANCE
Status: Visiting Faculty
Patrick A. Taran is today a leading specialist on labour migration, international migration governance, and migrants’ human rights. He has 35 years of professional experience in migration, refugee, and integration work at local, national and global levels. Mr. Taran is currently leaching “Globalization, Migration and Governance: Scenarios for Today and Tomorrow” at the Geneva School of Diplomacy.
Education
His B.A. degree is in Social Work and Latin American studies (Friends World College, State University of New York).
Professional Experience
Mr. Taran is Senior Migration Specialist with the International Labour Office (ILO) in Geneva since 2001. He is responsible for ILO programmatic activity to combat discrimination against migrant workers and on protection of rights and dignity of migrants. He developed a comprehensive ”integrated approach” for technical cooperation on labour migration governance and overseas cooperation/capacity building projects in Africa, Europe and CIS countries. He also supervised national situation testing studies measuring discrimination in access to employment in several European countries.
Previous posts include Program Officer for the UN inter-agency International Migration Policy Program (1998-2001) and Secretary for Migration at the World Council of Churches (1990-98); he co-founded and formerly directed Migrants Rights International (MRI) an independent international human rights monitoring body. He founded and directed the South American Refugee Program –a social service agency– in Seattle (1977-80) prior to a decade as research officer, first asylum program coordinator and Washington representative for the Immigration and Refugee Program of Church World Service/National Council of Churches USA.
He is a member of the International Institute for Humanitarian Law (San Remo) and the Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migration, and co-convened the Steering Committee of the Global Campaign on the Convention on migrant workers.
He designed and taught courses on international migration governance and related themes at the ILO International Training Centre in Turin and the International Migration Policy Programme.
Publications
He has authored or contributed to several books and many articles, reports, briefing papers and public statements in the fields of migration and human rights.
- Strengthening Migration Governance. ILO-OSCE. Geneva, Vienna. 2010. (Contributing editor)
- Refugee Survey Quarterly: Human Rights and Mobility. Volume 28, Number 4. (Special Issue) Oxford University Press. 2010. (Co-edited with Dr Ryszard Cholewinski)
- International Migration, Social Cohesion and Development: An Integrated Approach. Council of Europe, Strasbourg 2009.
- “Globalización, migraciones y derechos humanos: desafíos para el desarrollo y la cohesión social” en Políticas migratorias y derechos humanos. Universidad Nacional de Lanús, Argentina. 2009.
- Handbook on Establishing Effective Labour Migration Policies; Mediterranean edition. OSCE-IOM-ILO, Geneva, Vienna. 2007. (Contributing co-editor)
- “Clashing Worlds; Imperatives for a Rights-Based Approach to Labour Migration in the Age of Globalization” in Globalization, migration and human rights: International Law under Review. Bruylant, Brussels. 2007.
- Getting at the Roots: Stopping Exploitation of Migrant Workers by Organized Crime. ILO Perspectives on Labour Migration #1. 2003. Co-authored by Gloria Moreno-Fontes.
- Globalization, Labour and Migration: Protection is Paramount. ILO Perspectives on Labour Migration #3. 2003. Co-authored with Eduardo Geronimi.
- A Moment to Choose, A Resource Book on uprooted people. World Council of Churches, Geneva. 1997. Co-authored with Dr Helene Moussa.
- Fulfilling the Promise, Orientation Guide to the New Immigration Law. Church World Service, New York. 1987. 147 pages.