A/HRC/56/60 circumstances in which they are found.”34 The Special Rapporteur recalls also the Guidelines on the Treatment of Persons Rescued at Sea.35 23. Flag States, coastal States and States responsible for the coordination of search and rescue zones, and their search and rescue units, have further obligations to provide assistance to all in distress at sea or to ensure that assistance is provided. 36 Furthermore, States have obligations towards masters of private ships that render assistance to persons in distress at sea, to facilitate their efforts and continued safe journeys.37 Fulfilment of those obligations is essential to the protection of victims of trafficking and the prevention of trafficking in persons. 24. Coastal States are required, under the International Convention on Maritime Search and Rescue, to establish national search and rescue zones in cooperation with neighbouring States and to take primary responsibility for responding to search and rescue incidents that occur within their region. That may include deployment of national vessels, coordination of responses with other States or delegating responsibility to private, commercial or other non-State actors to respond and render assistance. 38 Specifically, the Convention requires States providing the overall coordination of search and rescue zones to “take urgent steps to provide the most appropriate assistance available and, where such assistance is rendered, to take primary responsibility for ensuring effective co-ordination and co-operation so that survivors assisted are disembarked from the assisting ship and delivered to a place of safety”. 25. The Special Rapporteur highlights the Progress Declaration, in which States committed to develop and implement transparent, safe and predictable arrival procedures on land and at sea for all migrants, including procedures for rescued people, promoting responsibility-sharing in providing a place of safety and to develop and implement procedures and agreements on search and rescue of migrants, with the primary objective of protecting migrants’ right to life, that uphold the prohibition of collective expulsion, guarantee due process and individual assessments, enhance reception and assistance capacities, and ensure that the provision of assistance of an exclusively humanitarian nature for migrants is not considered unlawful.39 However, as evidenced by the continuing alarming numbers of refugees and migrants dying or disappearing at sea, progress has not been made. 26. The Special Rapporteur highlights general comment No. 1 of the Committee on Enforced Disappearances (para. 6), in which the Committee states that restrictive and dehumanizing border governance directly contribute to the disappearance of migrants. Those practices include immigration detention, pushbacks and chain pushbacks on land or at sea, the systematic failure of search and rescue, 40 and collusion between State agents and organized criminal groups engaged in trafficking in persons.41 27. The Special Rapporteur recalls that victims of trafficking at sea may also be victims of enforced disappearances and, as such, the obligations arising for States and all maritime actors arising in the context of enforced disappearances must be ensured. The Special Rapporteur highlights the recently adopted African Guiding Principles on the Human Rights of All Migrants, Refugees and Asylum Seekers. The Guiding Principles aim to support African Union member States in fulfilling their legal obligations to guarantee the rights of all migrants, without discrimination as to status, and apply at all stages of the migration process 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 8 International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea, chap. V, regulation 33 (1). Maritime Safety Committee resolution MSC.167(78). International Convention on Maritime Search and Rescue, annex 2.1.3 and chap 2, para. 2.1.9. See, for example, International Convention on Maritime Search and Rescue, art. 3.1.9. International Convention on Maritime Search and Rescue, as amended by Maritime Safety Committee resolution MSC.155(78), annex, chap. 3, para. 3.1.9. General Assembly resolution 76/266, annex, para. 65. See OHCHR, “‘Lethal disregard’: search and rescue and the protection of migrants in the central Mediterranean Sea”; and Noemi Magugliani and Jean-Pierre Gauci, “Migrant crossings in the Channel: non-assistance, securitisation, and accountability under international law”, Opinio Juris, 21 December 2021. A/HRC/36/39/Add.2, paras. 34–43. See also Human Rights Commission of Malaysia and Fortify Rights, “Sold Like Fish”: Crimes against Humanity, Mass Graves, and Human Trafficking from Myanmar and Bangladesh to Malaysia from 2012 to 2015 (2019). GE.24-06692