A/65/222 27. In line with the above, the Special Rapporteur wishes to recall that detention is a tool that characterizes criminal law as opposed to administrative law, which, by nature, should resort to alternative interim measures to detention. He wishes to stress that the detention of migrants should be a measure of last resort when no alternative options are available. Accordingly, migration law and policy should effectively regulate alternative measures that could be applied and duly monitored, both by administrative and judicial bodies. 3. The improper use of the word “illegal” to label migrants 28. The Special Rapporteur wishes to emphasize that all migrants, regardless of immigration status, are first and foremost human beings, entitled to be treated in a manner that complies with international law and human rights standards and therefore, he wishes to draw the attention of the General Assembly to the inadequacy of using the word “illegal” to refer to human beings in a situation of immigration irregularity. 29. The Special Rapporteur also wishes to highlight that the term “illegal migrant”, broadly used in the context of the criminalization of irregular migration is not recognized in international law. He wishes to recall that “irregular” or “non-documented” migrant, as defined by article 5 of the International Convention on the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families, are internationally accepted terms to describe the situation of not having, or having lost, the proper documents that allow migrants either to reside in a given territory or to work there. In his view, labelling human beings as “illegal” is inconsistent with human dignity, particularly in light of the content that the term “illegal” carries with it, tainting migrants with prejudice and criminal suspicion because of its linkages with criminal law and the criminal justice system. 30. The Special Rapporteur wishes to recall that the human rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in the core international human rights treaties extend to all migrants, including those who are in a non-documented or irregular situation. This has been repeatedly underlined by human rights mechanisms and is also made explicit by the International Convention on the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families. While some limited differential treatment between regular and irregular migrants may be justified under international human rights law, for example, with regard to political rights and access to certain specific programmes and services, such differential treatment must never encroach on the fundamental rights and liberties that a State must guarantee to all persons under its jurisdiction, irrespective of their immigration status. 4. The profiling of migrant communities 31. Information collected and received by the Special Rapporteur indicates that, in some instances, law enforcement officials routinely use generalizations about ethnicity, religion, race, colour of the skin, or national origin in deciding whom to target for identity checks, stops, searches and sometimes arrest rather than utilizing objective evidence as the basis for making law enforcement and/or investigative decisions on criminal activity and the correlative criminal responsibility. Reports received by the Special Rapporteur also indicate that in some instances racial and ethnic profiling may result from the racist behaviour of individual law enforcement 10-47488 9