A/80/302 VI. Conclusions and recommendations 60. The Special Rapporteur expresses concern regarding the growing use of externalization measures by States in the governance of migration and responses to refugees and mixed movements. Rather than upholding their international human rights obligations and recognizing the positive contributions of migrants and refugees to their societies, many States continue to allocate substantial resources to shifting responsibility for migration and asylum management to third States. This outsourcing often occurs without adequate safeguards, in particular when third States lack the capacity or political will to ensure protection of rights. As a result, the rights of migrants and refugees are placed at serious risk. 61. In this context, the Special Rapporteur identifies several human rights as being particularly vulnerable to violation, including the right to leave any country, including one’s own; the principle of non-refoulement; the prohibition of collective expulsion; the right to due process and an effective remedy; the prohibition of arbitrary detention, torture and ill-treatment; the right to life; the prohibition of enforced disappearance; economic, social and cultural rights; and prohibition of racial discrimination. 62. Externalization arrangements are often characterized by a lack of transparency and limited accountability mechanisms. While certain practices and procedures aimed at ensuring democratic oversight and human rights monitoring have shown promise, they remain the exception rather than the norm. The extraterritorial nature of externalization measures, coupled with the involvement of multiple actors, presents significant challenges in establishing legal responsibility for human rights violations. Nonetheless, States cannot circumvent their international obligations by delegating their migration control practices to other States or non-State actors beyond their territory. Depending on the involvement of externalizing and third States, violations may be attributed to both the externalizing State and the third State or non-State actor, or one party may be complicit in violations attributed to another. 63. In order to ensure that States uphold their obligations under the human rights treaties, the Special Rapporteur calls upon States to end arrangements that prevent arrival, outsource asylum processing or allow for readmission or expulsion to countries different from the country of nationality, which effectively shift responsibility for migrants and refugees to third States and, in practice, lead to violations of their human rights. Until such arrangements have been ended, in order to ensure respect for the human rights of migrants and refugees in the context of migration cooperation, the Special Rapporteur recommends that States: (a) Ensure that migration governance measures respect, protect and fulfil human rights, are gender-responsive and do not create new situations of vulnerability or exacerbate existing ones; (b) Comply with international human rights norms and standards and the principle of good faith when engaging in migration and asylum-related cooperation; (c) Encourage and strengthen the participation of civil society in developing and implementing policies and projects related to migration and asylum, acknowledge their role in addressing and monitoring border control and surveillance measures and ensure that civil society organizations do not face legal and practical obstacles in carrying out their work; 25-12609 21/23

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