The federated states on the enforcement of migrants' rights: the support of the Intersectoral State Committee on the Attention to Refugees, Stateless Persons and Migrants of Rio Grande do Norte to the implementation of international law
International Law. Constitutional Powers. Migrants Rights. Local Governance on Migration.
The current investigation was developed envisaging the observation of measures adopted by the State of Rio Grande do Norte, through the recent Intersectoral State Committee on the Attention to Refugees, Stateless Persons and Migrants of Rio Grande do Norte (CERAM/RN), in relation with the international standards for migrant’s humans rights protection. While member of a federation, the obligations derived from international law that are assigned to the member-states depend on the allocation of competences defined in national law. Therefore, considering the reserved powers assigned to the member-state by art. 25, § 1º, of the Federal Constitution, there is a broad body of international norms assigning subjective rights to migrants that can be demanded from the member-states. Thus, the states meet an intermediary position, steered by the federal laws, from which they owe obedience, and limited by the municipality’s power to refer to local interests. At last, through the concurrent examination of the international law in force in Brazil and the experience from CERAM/RN, we came to a positive answer regarding the compatibility among the conduct of the public body and the commands of international law regarding migrants’ rights. This accord shows an optimistic tendency from the first years of CERAM/RN, although the implementation of migrants’ rights need yet to be verified in the following years that will succeed the current programmatic and emergency phase, especially about the planification of policies sustained on research and comprehensive data, followed by the monitoring of its implementation by public bodies.