The following joint statement was issued today by participants at the eleventh Annual Meeting of the Special Rapporteurs/representatives, independent experts and chairpersons of the working groups of the Special Procedures of the Commission on Human Rights and of the Advisory Services Programme:
“The Special Rapporteurs/Representatives, Independent Experts and Chairpersons of the Working Groups of the Special Procedures of the Commission on Human Rights and of the Advisory Services Programme, meeting in eleventh annual session in Geneva from 21 to 25 June 2004, express their strong concern regarding the continued deterioration in the situation and the denial of human rights of migrants. We recognize the sovereign right of States to promulgate laws and regulations concerning the entry of aliens and the terms and conditions of their stay. Such actions by States must, however, be consistent with their obligations under international humanitarian law and human rights law. In this regard, we wish in particular to express our concern about the current attempts to institutionalize discrimination and exclusion of migrants as well as the increasing tendency to restrict the human rights of migrants, including the treatment that migrants, especially women and unaccompanied minors, deemed to be irregular, receive.”
Welcome to the United Nations 
OHCHR 
