This enormous need remained unmet in spite of elaboration of international human rights standards for migrants and exhortations in international conferences calling for cooperation to protect migrants rights. Prominent international representatives of church, human rights, migrant and trade union organizations, inter-governmental bodies, and national and local NGOs supported the creation of Migrants Rights International to take on precisely these responsibilities. MRI was created to serve as an independent expert international human rights monitoring body focusing on migrants. These accomplishments are all the more notable because MRI has been run on a small operating budget with church-related contributions. Much of the work of MRI is implemented by and through activity of its members.
Membership is mandated to be equitably representative of all world regions.
The racially and ethnically diverse members come from migration sending and receiving countries. The committee is gender balanced. The Assembly of Members is the general decision-making body of MRI, developing common analysis, set policy, determine overall priorities, review activity, and oversee budget and finances. It meets one to two times yearly, for four to five days each time, to review and analyze global trends and issues and to plan, monitor, and evaluate Assembly policy and decisions. Exco members come from different geographic regions, with priority attention given to individuals active in migrant organizations.