E/CN.4/2000/82 page 3 Executive summary In accordance with Commission on Human Rights resolution 1999/44, the Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, Ms. Gabriela Rodríguez Pizarro, is submitting her first report. The first part of the text describes her activities under the mandate entrusted to her by the Commission. There follows a description of the context of the feminization of migration and the international community’s growing interest in the phenomenon, which has led to various initiatives. That description is followed by the first outline of the work programme itself, the main purpose of which is to collect information in order to be able to submit reports to the Commission at its fifty-seventh and fifty-eighth sessions, as well as to make recommendations to the bodies concerned. This includes the preparatory process for the World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance. Information will be collected from all sectors, including migrants themselves, and will take into account the gender perspective. The work programme should also include close monitoring of intergovernmental and intersectoral initiatives already under way to tackle the problem of migration, and observer missions to countries affected by the phenomenon. The second part of the report is devoted to an initial examination of the international instruments available for the protection of the human rights of migrants and highlights the lack of a comprehensive definition of existing categories of migrants. This examination takes into account the net effects of the domestic laws and regional agreements regarded as critical for the defence of the human rights of migrants. Special emphasis if placed on the need to take into account the problem of trafficking in persons (not only for the purposes of prostitution) and the implications of returning undocumented migrants to their places of origin. In this chapter, the Special Rapporteur proposes that a working definition of the category of migrant should be formulated, and that the adoption of existing instruments covering the rights of one or more of the categories discussed should be recommended and encouraged. Lastly, the report presents some comments by the Special Rapporteur on areas considered suitable for further research: the link between migration and the increase in racism, discrimination and intolerance, and a more detailed examination of the issues surrounding women migrants and their implications for a gender-based approach to the phenomenon of migration. This section is followed by observations on migration issues as they affect children. Lastly, it is explained how, from this perspective, the concept of vulnerability applies to migrants and how considerations of the obstacles to the protection of their rights, which were noted by the working group of intergovernmental experts on the human rights of migrants, are taken up. The report concludes with chapters on preliminary conclusions and some recommendations.