Colin Rajah
Colin Rajah
Board of Directors
Colin Rajah is a migrant and former asylee from Malaysia. He has been a long-time advocate for migrants, migration policy and governance, on human rights, and in international development. He has almost 40 years of experience in human rights activism, particularly in leadership roles with civil society engagement, coordination, and alliance-building at the global level, as well as in international policy advocacy and international relations.
Colin is currently semi-retired, serving as a part-time Senior Advisor consultant to the Policy Department of the International Catholic Migration Commission (ICMC) where he provides leadership guidance to the global secretariats of the Civil Society Action Committee and the Global Forum on Migration and Development’s Civil Society Mechanism, both of which he previously coordinated from 2019-2024. He also sits on the board of directors of Refugee Congress and the Migration Children & Youth Platform (MYCP), and the advisory board of Justice in Motion.
Prior to 2019, Colin was the International Organization for Migration’s (IOM) Civil Society Liaison for the consultation, stock-taking and negotiations of the Global Compact for Migration (GCM) (2017-2018), a co-Founder and Coordinator of the Global Coalition on Migration (2011-2016), the International Program Director at the National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (NNIRR) (2003-2011), the Secretary of Migrants Rights International (MRI) (2006-2016), and a co-Founder and co-Chair of the People's Global Action on Migration, Development and Human Rights (PGA) (2006-2016).
Among notable roles, he served as the GFMD’s 2016 Civil Society Chair, and as the Civil Society Representative at the 2022 International Migration Review Forum (IMRF). He also co-Chaired the Civil Society Forum for the 2013 UN High Level Dialogue on Migration and Development. Colin has served on the Co-Design and Selection Committee for the inaugural US Refugee Advisory Board (USRAB) (2022-2023).
Beyond the field of migration, Colin was previously a co-Founder, Steering Committee member (2012-2018) and President (2015-2017) of Global Bersih, a global Malaysian diaspora network advocating for democratic reform; the Executive Director of JustAct: Youth Action for Global Justice (formerly the Overseas Development Network), a US youth network advocating on issues of global justice; the Vice-President of Youth for Development and Cooperation (YDC), a global youth network advocating for sustainable international development; a co-Founder and Steering Committee member of the Grassroots Global Justice Alliance (GGJ); a co-Founder and Steering Committee member of the inaugural US Social Forum (USSF); and the North American representative to the World Youth Festivals (1996-2002).
