Patrick A. Taran is a globally recognized specialist on international migration with focus on migration governance and protection of migrants, with 43 years of full-time professional operational experience in migration, immigration, refugee resettlement and discrimination/integration as well as development, human rights and social work at local, national and global levels. He played leading roles in developing technical cooperation and advisory services on migration governance in Africa and Eurasia, promoting entry into force of the International Convention on Protection of Rights of Migrants, producing practical guidance materials, research studies and academic literature, and obtaining national implementation of international legal standards. He also facilitated cooperation among governments, international organizations and civil society. He co-authored/co-edited twelve books and has written more than 200 articles, reports, research papers and speeches.

Patrick Taran is President of Global Migration Policy Associates since 2011. He was Senior Migration Specialist at the ILO from 2000-2011 and the Secretary for Migration at the World Council of Churches 1990-98. He co-founded and directed the South American Refugee Program in Seattle (1976-1980). He was co-founder of the Committee for US Action on Asylum Concerns (1985); Migrants Rights International (1994); the Global Ecumenical Network on Refugees and Migration (1995); and the Steering Committee for the global campaign on the migrants rights conventions (1998). ​

He recently spoke at the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) - Parliament of the Kingdom of Morocco global consultation on migration and the GCM held on December 6-7 in Rabat, Morocco. Below is a brief prepared for the conference, which is an extension of his speech to the assembly of some 200 Parliamentarians from 50 countries in all regions.