A/HRC/11/7
page 17
mechanisms,40 and international declarations41 on this issue. Accordingly, the Special Rapporteur
suggests that States that still punish irregular migration with imprisonment should revise and
reform their migration laws, de-criminalize irregular migration and provide special protection for
unaccompanied and accompanied migrant children.
3. Protecting children in host countries
66. The protection of children in host countries is in most circumstances context specific, and
therefore depends on the particular situation of the child: whether the child’s situation amounts
to the protection afforded under refugee law; whether the child is a victim of transnational
organized crime; whether the child is migrating with his family and one or both parents are
migrant workers; or whether the child is migrating irregularly, unaccompanied or undocumented.
67. The Special Rapporteur has identified two areas where States generally should enhance
efforts to provide rights-based responses to protect children in host countries. The first area
relates to the general protection of children affected by transnational organized crime. The
second area relates to the full enjoyment of human rights by children from a migrant
background.
68. The first area covers grey areas of the general protection of the child affected by
transnational organized crime. For example, the classification of a child as a trafficking victim
implies in some instances additional migration obstacles for the child at the border or forced
return to his or her place of origin, without taking into consideration the child’s view on their
return to the country of origin, in proportion to age and maturity.42
69. The Special Rapporteur regrets that the criminalization of traffickers is sometimes
construed in a way that undermines or diminishes the child’s rights, for example, when affording
protection to a child victim is conditional on the child’s agreement to testify against the
traffickers in court.
70. The Special Rapporteur is concerned at the situation of children born and living in
countries where their mothers have been trafficked, particularly when there is a well-founded
fear of reprisals against them by traffickers and when children are left behind because their
40
See for example CMW/C/MEX/CO/1, paras. 14, 15; E/CN.4/2003/85, paras. 43, 73, and
A/HRC/7/12, paras. 15, 19, 42, 43; A/HRC/7/4, paras. 41-54; and Global Migration Group,
International Migration and Human Rights, 2008, pp. 72-73.
41
See, inter alia, Compromiso de Montevideo sobre Migración y Desarrollo de los Jefes de
Estado y de Gobierno de la Comunidad Iberoamericana de Naciones, XVI Iberoamerican
Summit, Montevideo, November 2006, para. 17; and Declaration of Asunción,
VI South American Conference on Migration, 4-5 May 2006, para. 3.b.
42
Convention on the Rights of the Child, art. 12.