E/CN.4/2005/85
page 15
48.
In the Special Rapporteur’s view, unaccompanied minors are at great risk of violence,
exploitation, child trafficking, discrimination and other abuses. They are also more vulnerable
to sexual abuse and being coerced into begging, drug dealing or prostitution by criminals or
criminal organizations (see E/CN.4/2005/85/Add.3).
E. Summary of working methods
49.
At its fifty-fifth session, the Commission on Human Rights adopted resolution 1999/44,
by which it decided to appoint, for a three-year period, a special rapporteur on the human rights
of migrants. The mandate of this special public procedure is to examine ways and means to
overcome obstacles to the full and effective protection of the human rights of this vulnerable
group, including obstacles and difficulties for the return of migrants who are undocumented or in
an irregular situation. The Commission established this special public mechanism at the
recommendation of the Working Group of Intergovernmental Experts on the Human Rights of
Migrants (E/CN.4/1999/80, paras. 123-124).
50.
The Special Rapporteur has continued to apply the working methods described in
her second report to the Commission (E/CN.4/2001/83, paras. 35-41; see also A/57/292,
paras. 17-24). In response to frequent requests from government and non-government sources
for information on her methods of work, the Special Rapporteur felt it was necessary to
summarize them in this report.
51.
The methods of work developed by the Special Rapporteur since the creation of this
special public procedure are based on the mandate first established in Commission on Human
Rights resolution 1999/44 and further developed in subsequent resolutions. The legal framework
for the mandate was set forth in her third report to the Commission and has developed further
since then (E/CN.4/2002/94, paras. 8-22; A/59/377, paras. 29-46).
52.
In the Special Rapporteur’s view, “migrant” is a generic term covering both emigrants
and immigrants, where emigrant is understood to mean a person who leaves one State intending
to move to another and settle there; while immigrant means a person who enters another State
intending to reside there. This is why, in her work, the Special Rapporteur has also considered
the situation of asylum-seekers and foreigners deprived of their liberty. The Special Rapporteur
frequently receives allegations of violations of the human rights of asylum-seekers and refugees,
and she will intervene in such cases provided the person concerned does not have refugee status.
Where such reports refer to one or more people who have been granted refugee status under the
Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, the Special Rapporteur will use her good offices
to transmit the allegations to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
(UNHCR).
53.
The Special Rapporteur refers in her work to the definitions given in the International
Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their
Families and in the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially
Women and Children, and the Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air,
supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime.