A/HRC/20/24 monitoring of places where migrants are detained. The Special Rapporteur has been made aware of several instances of desperate violence in migration detention centres, such as suicide attempts, self-mutilation, hunger strikes, rioting and arson: such instances could probably be considerably reduced if effective, frequent and independent monitoring of the detention facilities was implemented, including secure and accessible mechanisms for receiving complaints by migrant detainees. 7. Places of detention of migrants 33. The Special Rapporteur wishes to emphasize that migrants in administrative detention should be kept in dedicated detention centres, and should under no circumstances be detained in prisons or other criminal facilities together with persons imprisoned for a criminal offence. The International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families provides that migrant workers and members of their families who are detained for violation of provisions relating to migration shall be held, in so far as practicable, separately from convicted persons or persons detained pending trial (art. 17, para. 3). The Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners provide that persons imprisoned under a non-criminal process shall be kept separate from persons imprisoned for a criminal offence. Additionally, the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention stated in its deliberation No. 5 that custody must be effected in a public establishment specifically intended for this purpose or, when for practical reasons, this is not the case, the asylum-seeker or immigrant must be placed in premises separate from those for persons imprisoned under criminal law. At the regional level, the Principles and Best Practices on the Protection of Persons Deprived of Liberty in the Americas 2 provide that asylum- or refugee-status-seekers and persons deprived of liberty due to migration issues shall not be deprived of liberty in institutions designed to hold persons deprived of liberty on criminal charges. 34. However, information received by the Special Rapporteur indicates that migrants are detained in a wide range of places, including prisons, police stations, dedicated immigration detention centres, unofficial migration detention centres, military bases, private security company compounds, disused warehouses, airports, ships, etc. These detention facilities are placed under the responsibility of many different public authorities, at local, regional or national level, which makes it difficult to ensure the consistent enforcement of standards of detention. Migrants may also be moved quite quickly from one detention facility to another, which also makes monitoring difficult. Moreover, migrants are often detained in facilities which are located far from urban centres, making access difficult for family, interpreters, lawyers and NGOs, which in turn limits the right of the migrant to effective communication. 35. Privately run migrant detention centres pose particular difficulties in terms of monitoring. They may also pose particular concern if the contracts for managing detention centres are awarded to the company that offers the lowest cost, without giving sufficient attention to the obligation to treat those detained with humanity and with respect for their dignity. The Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (A/HRC/17/31, annex) provide that States do not relinquish their international human rights law obligations when they privatize the delivery of services that may impact upon the enjoyment of human rights and the Human Rights Committee has stated in its communication No. 1020/2001 that “the contracting out to the private commercial sector of core State activities which involve the use of force and the detention of persons does not absolve a State party of its obligations under the Covenant” (para. 7.2). 2 Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, resolution 1/08. 9