A/68/283 including global meetings of their Chairs and secretariats organized in collaboration with IOM. 10 4. Bilateral migration initiatives 77. Bilateral migration governance is increasing and, in particular, has been playing an increasingly important role in the regulation of recruitment and employment of migrant workers between sending and receiving States, and regarding the return of irregularly staying migrants. Bilateral agreements cover such areas as visas, readmission, knowledge-sharing, labour migration, border management and rescue at sea. They are often entered into between neighbouring States but also between States from different regions. An example is the European Union’s mobility partnerships, which comprise joint declarations, often with simultaneously negotiated visa facilitation and readmission agreements. As noted in the 2013 report of the Special Rapporteur to the Human Rights Council, readmission agreements — covering both nationals of the country of return and third-country nationals having used the country of return as a transit State — are sometimes used as a bargaining tool, are signed in exchange for visa facilitation or liberalization for nationals of the country of return, and often do not ensure respect for the human rights of migrants. 78. There has been a proliferation of actors involved in bilateral migration governance. As an example, bilateral agreements on the recruitment of migrant workers sometimes involve private agencies. States must monitor those agencies closely in order to ensure that they fully respect the human rights of the migrants concerned. The Special Rapporteur would like to remind States that all bilateral agreements must strictly uphold the human rights of migrants and that they must ensure transparency, monitoring of implementation and effective access to justice for the migrants. 79. Bilateral agreements may be useful additions to regional or global approaches, particularly for neighbouring countries where there is a high level of mobility. The Special Rapporteur notes the challenges in ensuring transparency and the human rights dimension of bilateral agreements and in monitoring their human rights impact, as they are forms of private agreement between States and subject to the aforementioned power asymmetries between negotiating States. 5. Governance at the national level 80. Migration policies are formulated mainly at the national level, despite migration being by definition transnational. Good governance at the national level is thus a basis for more effective cooperation at the regional and global levels. This can be achieved by establishing a coherent approach at the national level, addressing all stages of the migration process, coordinated across government and developed in widespread consultation with the private sector, civil society and migrants themselves. 11 Ministries responsible for, inter alia, health, education, employment, children and social policies should be fully involved in the elaboration of migration policies. __________________ 10 11 13-42115 www.iom.int/cms/en/sites/iom/home/what-we-do/regional-processes-1/global-rcp-meetings.html. Global Commission on International Migration, “Migration in an interconnected world: new directions for action”. 15/26