A/HRC/34/54 detention, as well as the prohibition on holding anyone in unofficial places of detention. Other guarantees include the detainees’ right to have prompt access to independent legal counsel and medical assistance and to have their families notified of their arrest. In addition, each individual has the right to challenge the legality of his/her detention and treatment before an independent court. 9 There must be formal procedures by which a detainee is informed of his/her rights, so as to enable him/her to enjoy those rights. 32. The Special Rapporteur is interested in conducting a global survey on how States implement such safeguards. He will actively cooperate with Governments during his tenure to identify challenges and best practices and to encourage States to live up to their obligations to fully implement relevant safeguards in order to make detainees’ rights a reality rather than an aspiration. C. Migration-related torture and ill-treatment 33. Conflicts, violence, persecution, poverty and food insecurity are driving unprecedented waves of people to cross international borders in a desperate search for safety. According to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, in 2015 alone, 65.3 million individuals were forcibly displaced worldwide, the largest number since the Second World War.10 34. This rise in the number of forced displacements is paralleled by a growing and worrying tendency around the world to criminalize irregular migration, to deter applications for asylum and to detain people on the move. In this context, refugees, asylum seekers and other irregular migrants have become more vulnerable to human rights violations, including torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. 35. In this context, the Special Rapporteur intends to look with a renewed degree of scrutiny into the particular risks of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment faced by irregular migrants in today’s world. He will do so keeping in mind the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants, adopted by the General Assembly on 19 September 2016, in which States committed to protect the human rights of all refugees and migrants. 1. Detention of migrants and refugees 36. Of particular interest to the Special Rapporteur’s mandate will be the use by many, if not all, Governments of detention as a migration management tool in arrival, transit and removal centres. During his fact-finding visits, the Special Rapporteur intends to visit places where irregular migrants are held with a view to ensuring that they are not subjected to treatment and conditions of detention amounting to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. The Special Rapporteur is of the view that monitoring both official and de facto places of detention where irregular migrants are held would be instrumental for assisting authorities in addressing possible cases of abuse and improving the conditions of life of this population. 2. Non-refoulement 37. The Special Rapporteur will also closely monitor the conditions under which some irregular migrants, including asylum seekers and refugees, are being returned to their 9 10 Committee against Torture, general comment No. 2, para. 13; Human Rights Committee, general comment No. 20, para. 11. See www.unhcr.org/576408cd7.pdf. 9