A/HRC/4/WG.3/6 page 19 56. In its general recommendation No. 24 (1999) on article 12 of the Convention (women and health), the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women urges States to pay special attention “to the health needs and rights of women belonging to vulnerable and disadvantaged groups, such as migrant women, refugee and internally displaced women, the girl child and older women, women in prostitution, indigenous women ….”42 57. Several other international instruments are of great relevance in this context. In particular, attention should be paid to the: International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families (ICRMW); Convention relating to the Status of Refugees of 1951, and its 1967 Protocol; the relevant ILO Conventions; Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others of 1949; United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children and the Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air, supplementing the Convention; Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons of 1954; Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness of 1961; and Declaration on the Human Rights of Individuals Who are not Nationals of the Country in which they Live of 1985. The experts are seriously concerned by the exceptionally low rate of ratification of the ICRMW. Assessment and recommendations 58. The experts do not discern any substantive gaps as regards the protection of refugees, asylum-seekers and migrant workers from racism and racial discrimination. States parties should, however, be enjoined to take the necessary legislative and administrative measures to implement their obligations arising from ICERD with respect to these specific categories as well as from other related international instruments. The experts note the absence of an explicit incorporation of acts of xenophobia and related intolerance in international instruments and recommend that CERD adopt a general recommendation to rectify this lacuna. 2. Stateless persons 59. In the absence of protection by the State by virtue of citizenship, the situation of stateless persons is particularly fragile in many respects. If racial prejudice and xenophobic attitudes are widespread in a given society, one can assume with great probability that they will affect primarily this group of people. Strengthening the protection of stateless persons is, therefore, an important aspect of the struggle against racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance. 60. The DDPA does not specifically refer to stateless persons but many of its stipulations are mutatis mutandis of great relevance to them. Racism faced by stateless persons prompted the development of international standards that link the general protection of the human rights of 42 Paragraph 6.