Protection of migrants
A/RES/68/179
stereotypes often applied to them, including on the basis of religion or belief, and
urges States to apply and, where needed, reinforce the existing laws when hate
crimes, xenophobic or intolerant acts, manifestations or expressions against
migrants occur in order to eradicate impunity for those who commit those acts;
(b) Expresses concern about legislation adopted by some States that results
in measures and practices that may restrict the human rights and fundamental
freedoms of migrants, and reaffirms that, when exercising their sovereign right to
enact and implement migratory and border security measures, States have the duty
to comply with their obligations under international law, including international
human rights law, in order to ensure full respect for the human rights of migrants;
(c) Calls upon States to ensure that their laws and policies, including in the
areas of counter-terrorism and combating transnational organized crime, such as
trafficking in persons and smuggling of migrants, fully respect the human rights of
migrants;
(d) Calls upon States that have not done so to consider signing and ratifying
or acceding to the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All
Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families10 as a matter of priority, and
requests the Secretary-General to continue his efforts to promote and raise
awareness of the Convention;
(e) Takes note of the report of the Committee on the Protection of the Rights
of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families on its seventeenth and
eighteenth sessions; 19
4.
Also reaffirms the duty of States to effectively promote and protect the
human rights and fundamental freedoms of all migrants, especially those of women
and children, regardless of their migration status, in conformity with the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights and the international instruments to which they are
party, and therefore:
(a) Calls upon all States to respect the human rights and inherent dignity of
migrants, to put an end to arbitrary arrest and detention and, in order to avoid
excessive detention of irregular migrants, to review, where necessary, detention
periods and to use alternatives to detention, where appropriate, including measures
that have been successfully implemented by some States;
(b) Urges all States to adopt effective measures to prevent and punish any
form of illegal deprivation of liberty of migrants by individuals or groups;
(c) Requests States to adopt concrete measures to prevent the violation of the
human rights of migrants while in transit, including in ports and airports and at
borders and migration checkpoints, and train public officials who work in those
facilities and in border areas to treat migrants respectfully and in accordance with
the law;
(d) Calls upon States to prosecute, in conformity with applicable law, acts of
violation of the human rights of migrants and their families, such as arbitrary
detention, torture and violations of the right to life, including extrajudicial
executions, during their transit from the country of origin to the country of
destination and vice versa, including transit across national borders;
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19
Official Records of the General Assembly, Sixty-eighth Session, Supplement No. 48 (A/68/48).
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