Protection of Migrants

A/RES/65/212View PDF

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 68b Human rights questions, including alternative approaches for improving the effective enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms, published in 2011.

What other versions does this mandate have?

22 versions · 2000–2025

This is an older version — the most recent is A/RES/80/218

Year	Symbol	Title	Word length	Text similarity
2025	A/RES/80/218	Protection of migrants	5,961	69%Compare
2023	A/RES/78/217	Protection of migrants	6,518	67%Compare
2022	A/RES/76/172	Protection of migrants	5,336	78%Compare
2020	A/RES/74/148	Protection of migrants	4,723	87%Compare
2018	A/RES/72/179	Protection of migrants	4,492	90%Compare

Which reports were submitted under this mandate?

15 reports · 2004–2026

Year	Symbol	Title	Mandate resolution
2026	A/HRC/61/31	Human rights of migrants report of the Secretary-General	A/RES/78/217
2023	A/HRC/54/81	Human rights of migrants report of the Secretary-General	A/RES/76/172
2020	A/HRC/45/30	Human rights of migrants report of the Secretary-General	A/RES/74/148
2019	A/74/271	Human rights of migrants report of the Secretary-General	A/RES/72/179
2016	A/71/284	Promotion and protection of human rights, including ways and means to promote the human rights of migrants report of the Secretary-General	A/RES/70/147

What’s in this document?

40 operative paragraphs

Calls upon States to promote and protect effectively the human rights and fundamental freedoms of all migrants, regardless of their migration status, especially those of women and children, and to address international migration through international, regional or bilateral cooperation and dialogue and through a comprehensive and balanced approach, recognizing the roles and responsibilities of countries of origin, transit and destination in promoting and protecting the human rights of all migrants, and avoiding approaches that might aggravate their vulnerability;

Expresses its concern about the impact of financial and economic crises on international migration and migrants, and in that regard urges Governments to combat unfair and discriminatory treatment of migrants, particularly migrant workers and their families;

Reaffirms the rights set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human RightsError: Reference source not found and the obligations of States under the International Covenants on Human Rights,Error: Reference source not found and in this regard:

Strongly condemns the manifestations and acts of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance against migrants and the stereotypes often applied to them, including on the basis of religion or belief, and urges States to apply and, where needed, reinforce the existing laws when xenophobic or intolerant acts, manifestations or expressions against migrants occur, in order to eradicate impunity for those who commit xenophobic and racist acts;

Expresses concern about legislation adopted by some States that results in measures and practices that may restrict the human rights and fundamental freedoms of migrants, and reaffirms that, when exercising their sovereign right to enact and implement migratory and border security measures, States have the duty to comply with their obligations under international law, including international human rights law, in order to ensure full respect for the human rights of migrants;

Calls upon States to ensure that their laws and policies, including in the areas of counter-terrorism and combating transnational organized crime, such as trafficking in persons and smuggling of migrants, fully respect the human rights of migrants;

Calls upon States that have not done so to consider signing and ratifying or acceding to the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their FamiliesError: Reference source not found as a matter of priority, and requests the Secretary-General to continue his efforts to promote and raise awareness of the Convention;

Takes note of the report of the Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families on its eleventh and twelfth sessions;¹⁸

¹⁸Official Records of the General Assembly, Sixty-fifth Session, Supplement No. 48 (A/65/48).

Also reaffirms the duty of States to effectively promote and protect the human rights and fundamental freedoms of all migrants, especially those of women and children, regardless of their immigration status, in conformity with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the international instruments to which they are party, and therefore:

Calls upon all States to respect the human rights and the inherent dignity of migrants and to put an end to arbitrary arrest and detention and, where necessary, to review detention periods in order to avoid excessive detention of irregular migrants, and to adopt, where applicable, alternative measures to detention;

Urges all States to adopt effective measures to prevent and punish any form of illegal deprivation of liberty of migrants by individuals or groups;

Notes with appreciation the measures adopted by some States to reduce detention periods in cases of undocumented migration, in the application of domestic regulations and laws regarding irregular migration;

Also notes with appreciation the successful implementation by some States of alternative measures to detention in cases of undocumented migration as a practice that deserves consideration by all States;

Requests States to adopt concrete measures to prevent the violation of the human rights of migrants while in transit, including in ports and airports and at borders and migration checkpoints, to train public officials who work in those facilities and in border areas to treat migrants respectfully and in accordance with the law, and to prosecute, in conformity with applicable law, any act of violation of the human rights of migrants, inter alia, arbitrary detention, torture and violations of the right to life, including extrajudicial executions, during their transit from their country of origin to the country of destination and vice versa, including their transit through national borders;

Underlines the right of migrants to return to their country of citizenship, and recalls that States must ensure that their returning nationals are duly received;

Reaffirms emphatically the duty of States parties to ensure full respect for and observance of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations,Error: Reference source not found in particular with regard to the right of all foreign nationals, regardless of their immigration status, to communicate with a consular official of the sending State in case of arrest, imprisonment, custody or detention, and the obligation of the receiving State to inform the foreign national without delay of his or her rights under the Convention;

Requests all States, in conformity with national legislation and applicable international legal instruments to which they are party, to enforce labour law effectively, including by addressing violations of such law, with regard to migrant workers’ labour relations and working conditions, inter alia, those related to their remuneration and conditions of health, safety at work and the right to freedom of association;

Encourages all States to remove unlawful obstacles, where they exist, that may prevent the safe, transparent, unrestricted and expeditious transfer of remittances, earnings, assets and pensions of migrants to their country of origin or to any other countries, in conformity with applicable legislation and agreements, and to consider, as appropriate, measures to solve other problems that may impede such transfers;

Recalls that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights recognizes that everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted to him or her;

Emphasizes the importance of protecting persons in vulnerable situations, and in this regard:

Expresses its concern about the increase in the activities of transnational and national organized crime entities and others who profit from crimes against migrants, especially women and children, without regard for dangerous and inhumane conditions and in flagrant violation of domestic laws and international law and contrary to international standards;

Also expresses its concern about the high level of impunity enjoyed by traffickers and their accomplices as well as other members of organized crime entities and, in this context, the denial of rights and justice to migrants who have suffered from abuse;

Welcomes immigration programmes, adopted by some countries, that allow migrants to integrate fully into the host countries, facilitate family reunification and promote a harmonious, tolerant and respectful environment, and encourages States to consider the possibility of adopting these types of programmes;

Encourages all States to develop international migration policies and programmes that include a gender perspective, in order to adopt the measures necessary to better protect women and girls against dangers and abuse during migration;

Calls upon States to protect the human rights of migrant children, given their vulnerability, particularly unaccompanied migrant children, ensuring that the best interests of the child are a primary consideration in their policies of integration, return and family reunification;

Encourages all States to prevent and eliminate discriminatory policies that deny migrant children access to education;

Urges States to ensure that repatriation mechanisms allow for the identification and special protection of persons in vulnerable situations, including persons with disabilities, and take into account, in conformity with their international obligations and commitments, the principle of the best interests of the child and family reunification;

Urges States parties to the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime¹⁹ and supplementing protocols thereto, namely, the Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air²⁰ and the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children,²¹ to implement them fully, and calls upon States that have not done so to consider ratifying or acceding to them as a matter of priority;

¹⁹United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 2225, No. 39574.

²⁰Ibid., vol. 2241, No. 39574.

²¹Ibid., vol. 2237, No. 39574.

Takes note with appreciation of the study of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on challenges and best practices in the implementation of the international framework for the protection of the rights of the child in the context of migration,²² and invites States to take into account the conclusions and recommendations of the study when designing and implementing their migration policies;

²²A/HRC/15/29.

Encourages States to protect victims of national and transnational organized crime, including kidnapping, trafficking and, in some instances, smuggling, through, where applicable, the implementation of programmes and policies that guarantee protection and access to medical, psychosocial and legal assistance;

Encourages Member States that have not already done so to enact domestic legislation and to take further effective measures to combat international trafficking in persons and smuggling of migrants, recognizing that these crimes may endanger the lives of migrants or subject them to harm, servitude or exploitation, which may also include debt bondage, slavery, sexual exploitation or forced labour, and also encourages Member States to strengthen international cooperation to combat such trafficking and smuggling;

Stresses the importance of international, regional and bilateral cooperation in the protection of the human rights of migrants, and therefore:

Requests all States, international organizations and relevant stakeholders to take into account in their policies and initiatives on migration issues the global character of the migratory phenomenon and to give due consideration to international, regional and bilateral cooperation in this field, including by undertaking dialogues on migration that include countries of origin, transit and destination, as well as civil society, including migrants, with a view to addressing, in a comprehensive manner, inter alia, its causes and consequences and the challenge of undocumented or irregular migration, granting priority to the protection of the human rights of migrants;

Encourages States to take the measures necessary to achieve policy coherence on migration at the national, regional and international levels, including by ensuring coordinated child protection policies and systems across borders that are in full compliance with international human rights law;

Also encourages States to further strengthen their cooperation in protecting witnesses in cases of smuggling of migrants and trafficking in persons;

Calls upon the United Nations system and other relevant international organizations and multilateral institutions to enhance their cooperation in the development of methodologies for the collection and processing of statistical data on international migration and the situation of migrants in countries of origin, transit and destination and to assist Member States in their capacity-building efforts in this regard;

Requests Member States, the United Nations system, international organizations, civil society and all relevant stakeholders, especially the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Special Rapporteur of the Human Rights Council on the human rights of migrants, to ensure that the perspective of the human rights of migrants is included among the priority issues in the ongoing discussions on international migration and development within the United Nations system, and in this regard underlines the importance of adequately taking into account the human rights perspective as one of the priorities of the informal thematic debate on international migration and development, to be held in 2011, as well as in the High-level Dialogue on International Migration and Development, which will take place during the sixty-eighth session of the General Assembly, in 2013, as decided by the Assembly in its resolution 63/225 of 19 December 2008;

Invites the Chair of the Committee to address the General Assembly at its sixty-sixth session under the item entitled “Promotion and protection of human rights”;

Invites the Special Rapporteur to submit his report to the General Assembly at its sixty-sixth session under the item entitled “Promotion and protection of human rights”;

Requests the Secretary-General to submit to the General Assembly at its sixty-sixth session a report on the implementation of the present resolution and to include in that report an analysis of the ways and means to promote the human rights of migrants, in particular how the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families has influenced policy and practice, where applicable, to strengthen the protection of migrants, in the context of its twentieth anniversary, and decides to examine the question further under the item entitled “Promotion and protection of human rights”.

Protection of Migrants

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

What other versions does this mandate have?

Which reports were submitted under this mandate?

What subjects does this mandate have?

What’s in this document?

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