INTRODUCTION on the use of the Handbook T he Commission on Human Rights of the Philippines is pleased to share this Handbook on the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families or the Migrant Workers Convention (MWC) Handbook. This Handbook is the third in the Treaty handbook Series of the CHRP whose main motivation is to popularize the various international human rights standards that the Philippines is a State party to. This is CHRP’s modest contribution in upholding and mainstreaming human rights both as a principle and a way of life for Filipinos. Specifically, the MWC Handbook puts together the following documents: 1) the text of the Migrant Workers Convention, all 93 Articles of it; 2) the Guidelines for preparing reports to the Migrant Workers Convention Treaty Monitoring Body (also known as the Committee for Migrant Workers or CMW); 3) the two CMW General Comments thus far; 4) reports and documents related to the 2 periodic reporting cycles of the Philippine government including the CMW Concluding Observations and recommendations. It also informs the readers of the activities and processes undertaken by the State and Civil Society, in parallel and together, to prepare and engage with CMW. An action matrix, mapping out the CMW recommendations and the corresponding responsible agencies and where available, CSOs, is also included in the Handbook. This publication is envisaged to guide duty holders, government, civil society as well as national human rights institutions in gauging the level of respecting, protecting and fulfilling the human rights of Filipino migrant workers, the migrant workers in the Philippines, and members of their families. It is hoped that the handbook will also prove useful to other States parties since the Philippines has been regarded as a global model for the protection of migrant workers and members of their families. The handbook is a repository of pertinent reports to the CMW. It also provides a glimpse of the processes in engaging the Treaty Body. Hence the handbook is a good reference guide in preparing for the next reporting cycles and engagements. As mandated, the CHRP will continue to work with and assist both the State party and the CSOs throughout the reporting procedures. The Commission will continue to partner with the State and the CSOs in the dissemination of the concluding observations and the reporting procedures at the national and community level to raise awareness about the rights under the Convention. Structure of the Handbook The Handbook starts off by informing the readers of what the Convention is all about; the guidelines for engaging and reporting both in terms of content, forms and procedures; the additional documents referred to as general comments the Committee has adopted as a way to elaborate application of the Convention on certain categories of migrant worker; It proceeds to document the actual procedures and submissions made to the reports for engagements with the Treaty Body including the concluding observations issued by the latter. The last part is information on steps forward to realize the recommendations of the Committee. Text of the Convention and the Reporting Guidelines The Handbook begins with the text of the United Nations International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families and the ‘Compilation of Guidelines on the Form and Content of Reports to be Submitted by States Parties to the International Human Rights Treaties’ in accordance with article 73 and 74 of the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families. These guidelines preceded and are replicated in the harmonized guidelines on reporting under the international human rights treaties (HRI/GEN2/Rev.5)