A/HRC/11/7/Add.2 page 4 I. INTRODUCTION 1. The Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants visited Mexico from 9 to 15 March 2008. He visited Tapachula (Chiapas state), Tijuana (Baja California), and Mexico City (Federal District). The Special Rapporteur expresses his thanks to the Government of Mexico for its cooperation and assistance, and his appreciation to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) for their support. 2. The Special Rapporteur met with a number of ministries and agencies responsible for law enforcement, border control and the protection of migrants and their families at the federal, state and municipal levels, including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of the Interior, the Under-Secretariat of Population, Migration and Religious Affairs, the Ministry of Labour, Security and Social Services, the Ministry of Public Security, the National System for the Integral Development of the Family (DIF), and the National Institute of Migration (INM). He also engaged in a dialogue with the Senate. 3. The Special Rapporteur had a meeting with United Nations actors working on issues related to migration, held three civil society forums (one in each city visited) and met with the National Human Rights Commission and the Federal District Human Rights Commission. He spoke with a range of non-governmental actors involved directly in the protection of migrants (legal services, medical assistance and shelters) and in the investigation of issues related to the human rights of migrants, and expresses his appreciation to them for their time and resources. 4. The Special Rapporteur visited three governmental migration detention centres during his visit - the Migrant Holding Centre (Estación Migratoria) Iztapalapa in Mexico City, the Migrant Holding Centre of Tijuana and the Migrant Holding Centre Modelo Siglo XXI in Tapachula - to observe migrants’ detention conditions and an official shelter for migrant children in Tapachula. The Special Rapporteur did a brief tour of the Mexico-Guatemala border near Tapachula, including the official border crossings of Talismán and Ciudad Hidalgo, with the assistance of the Beta Groups and the INM. 5. The present report analyses the protection of migrants’ human rights in Mexico from a comprehensive perspective, placing Mexico in the context of regional migration flows with an emphasis on the dimensions of movement to the United States and from Central America. It highlights Mexico’s significant historical role in the promotion of the human rights of migrants at the international level and examines the protection afforded under the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families, to which Mexico is a party. It then refers to the legal framework on migrants’ human rights at the federal level, underscoring significant implementation gaps, and noting problematic policies. 6. There follows an analysis of some groups in the Mexican migrant phenomenon, including the Mexican diaspora and deportees from the United States, migrant workers (in the agricultural and domestic spheres), migrant children, including unaccompanied minors, and child labour, and