A/58/275 feasibility of developing a set of guiding principles based on international law and best migration practices in order to increase inter-State cooperation. 8. At the level of the United Nations, an effort was made to identify the major challenges posed by the phenomenon of migration to States and the international community and to propose institutional arrangements to better deal with them. The Special Rapporteur is encouraged by this development. B. Challenges to the protection of the human rights of migrants 9. The following paragraphs are devoted to outlining the observations and recommendations of the Special Rapporteur with respect to some of the main human rights challenges in the context of migration. 1. Preventing irregular migration and combating trafficking, especially of women and unaccompanied minors 10. The Special Rapporteur has observed several outstanding factors that impel people to search for improved living conditions abroad. These include widespread violations of human rights, unemployment, low levels of education, political instability, unequal distribution of wealth, lack of gender equity and natural disasters in countries of origin, as well as falsified information regarding work opportunities in countries of destination. When these forceful push-factors are coupled with restrictive asylum and immigration policies, there can be an increase in the use of alternative migration channels, including smuggling, with serious consequences for the human rights of the people involved. 11. Irregular migration is the main backdrop for human rights violations, exploitation and discrimination. The impossibility of denouncing abusive practices by employers for fear of arrest and deportation and the lack of any social and labour protection, coupled with the lack of access to health care, social services and legal assistance, make irregular migrants vulnerable to exploitation and all types of abuses, as the Special Rapporteur has extensively reported. 12. The Special Rapporteur is very concerned about the violations of the rights of migrants committed by networks that smuggle migrants and traffic persons, and has addressed this theme in various activities. Since the establishment of her mandate, the Special Rapporteur has referred to the definitions of smuggling and trafficking contained in the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children and the Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime. The two Protocols refer to two different phenomena within the same Convention. The distinction between the two is made clear in these documents: while the definition of trafficking contains the element of coercion and affirms that trafficking may occur within a context of regular migration, that of smuggling does not. The definition of trafficking emphasizes subsequent exploitation, whereas the definition of smuggling focuses on facilitating irregular entry of a person from one country to another. 9