A/71/285 27. The Special Rapporteur supports the Secretary-General’s call to “undertake a State-led process to elaborate a comprehensive international cooperation framework on migrants and human mobility, in the form of a global compact for safe, regular and orderly migration, and to hold an intergovernmental conference on internati onal migration in 2018 to adopt the global compact” (A/70/59). 28. As a response to the proposals made in the above-mentioned report on a global compact, the Special Rapporteur makes the following recommendations, structured in line with the Secretary-General’s report, for the development of the global compact, in particular with a view to ensuring that human rights are included and mainstreamed therein. 1. Developing a human rights-based framework that will ensure that the global compact for safe, regular and orderly migration is based on the recognition that all migrants, regardless of their status, must receive the protection, respect and fulfilment of their human rights 29. States assume obligations under international law to respect, protect and fulfil human rights. These obligations are also broadly echoed by the national human rights standards and regional instruments, which apply to all, regardless of nationality or administrative status. 30. A human rights-based framework for migration would ensure the application of these obligations to migrants to protect them from abuse. It is a framework based on the principles of equality and non-discrimination and the duty of States to respect, protect and fulfil human rights, which includes the right to access justice. States must acknowledge that human rights are for all and that migrants should be treated as equal rights holders, regardless of their migratory status in relation to the sovereign territory they find themselves in. When migrants are viewed as equal rights holders, a duty to protect them at all stages of the migration process naturally follows. If violations of these rights occur at any point, migrants need to be provided with access to justice to remedy any discriminatory treatment. 31. The view and labelling of migrants among many stakeholders as “illegal” is counterproductive and is not supported by international law. While migrants who arrive in countries of destination without documents may be in an “irregular situation” or “undocumented” or “unauthorized”, they have not committed a criminal act. A human being cannot be intrinsically illegal, and naming anyone as such dehumanizes that person. The conceptualization of irregular migrants as “illegal” has undoubtedly played into the criminalization of migrants and thus to the practice of immigration detention. It has also had an impact on the general public ’s perception of migrants, legitimizing policies that are not in line with human rights guarantees and contributing to xenophobia, discrimination and violence. 32. The common conception that migrants are “job stealers” is also a harmful stereotype. Economic research demonstrates how migrants complement rather than compete with citizens, generating greater overall productivity within the economy. 4 __________________ 4 16-13509 David Card, “The impact of the Mariel boatlift on the Miami labor market”, Industrial and Labor Relations Review, vol. 43, No. 2 (January 1990), pp. 245-257; Mette Foged and Giovanni Peri, “Immigrants’ effect on native workers: new analysis on longitudinal data”, Institute for the Study of Labour discussion paper, No. 8961, 2015; Andri Chassamboulli and Giovanni Peri, “The labor market effects of reducing the number of illegal immigrants ”, Review of Economic Dynamics, vol. 18, No. 4 (October 2015). 7/24