The Special Rapporteur decided to dedicate the report to the 44th session of the Human Rights Council on the right to freedom of association of migrants since the mandate had received information demonstrating increasing hostility towards migrants and civil society organizations that work to protect migrants’ rights.
In many countries, this hostility had resulted in the imposition of new restrictions in law and in practice on freedom of association for migrants and their defenders. Given the interconnected nature of human rights, restrictions on freedom of association of migrants and their defenders further hinder migrants’ enjoyment of other rights. These include their rights to life, to seek basic services such as legal assistance, health care, housing and education, to protection from human traffickers, smugglers and gender-based violence, to information, to seek asylum, to fair working conditions and to the freedoms of expression and of assembly and freedom from discrimination.