E/CN.4/2005/85 page 13 to the economic development of the host country and also, through financial contributions in the form of remittances, to that of their country of origin. The fourth World Survey on the Role of Women in Development, submitted to the General Assembly at its fifty-ninth session in 2004, focuses on labour migration, family formation and reunification, the rights of migrant women, women refugees and displaced persons, and trafficking in women and girls.10 40. The World Survey on the Role of Women in Development contains recommendations to Governments on strengthening the role of migrant women, promoting and protecting their rights and reducing their vulnerability and the incidence of ill-treatment. The following are some of the recommendations: ratify and actively monitor implementation of all international legal instruments that promote and protect the rights of migrant women and girls; review national emigration and immigration laws and policies in order to identify discriminatory provisions that undermine the rights of migrant women; develop policies that recognize the contributions of migrant women in countries of destination; and ensure that their professional credentials are recognized or that training for recertification, if required, is available. Other recommendations made in the study which the Special Rapporteur would wish to highlight are the following: develop policies that enhance migrant women’s employment opportunities, access to safe housing, education, language training, health care and other services in the host country; and develop educational and communications programmes to inform migrant women of their rights and responsibilities under international and national laws, taking into consideration their cultural and linguistic backgrounds. 41. The Special Rapporteur has looked at various kinds of violence against migrant women, including gender-based violence, domestic and family violence, racist and xenophobic acts, sexual assault by employers, female genital mutilation and trafficking in women.11 Ignorance of the language, the fact that they are cut off from their families and environment and in most cases are in a precarious financial situation, and, for those with irregular status, the fear of deportation, all serve to make women more vulnerable to ill-treatment.12 In her study on the living, working and employment conditions of migrant women in domestic service, the Special Rapporteur reported that, as well as being subjected to abusive clauses in their contracts, changes in the terms of contracts, withholding of papers and enforced indebtedness at the hands of employment agencies, many of these women were also victims of ill-treatment and sexual violence on the part of their employers (see E/CN.4/2004/76). 42. The incidence of circumcision, or female genital mutilation, in host countries is on the rise, chiefly among immigrants from Africa and South-East Asia. The Special Rapporteur considers this a discriminatory, cruel and degrading practice, which violates the right to equal opportunities and to health. Every immigrant woman has the right to protection from harmful traditional practices and to control of her own reproduction. All these rights are enshrined in international law. The Special Rapporteur therefore supports States which pass laws to punish anyone perpetrating such acts against its nationals or immigrants resident on its territory, with extraterritorial effect to cover acts that are carried out or permitted abroad.13 States should protect adolescent girls within their territory, whether nationals or immigrants, from harmful traditional practices and facilitate the provision of information from a diversity of sources, and the establishment of centres offering counselling on the harmful effects of female genital mutilation.14