A/HRC/31/80 organizations. This methodology provides a non-exhaustive overview of practices that are representative of the human rights technical cooperation and advisory services provided. 6. Through their technical cooperation and advisory services, the United Nations and regional organizations seek to assist States to ensure that duty-bearers uphold their human rights obligations. They support States’ efforts to ensure that national legislation, policies, programmes and institutions comply with international human rights standards; to ratify international and regional human rights treaties and review reservations; to establish functioning and compliant national and regional protection systems and accountability mechanisms to monitor, investigate and redress human rights violations; and to build or strengthen mechanisms that enable rights-holders, in particular women and groups subject to discrimination, to claim their rights. At the international level, OHCHR assists States to meet their obligations by supporting their engagement with international human rights mechanisms and bodies, in association with other United Nations entities and, where pertinent, regional organizations. 7. To prepare the present report, OHCHR gathered information on the experiences, methodologies and learning of OHCHR headquarters and field presences, including regional and country offices, human rights components of United Nations peace missions, and human rights advisers to United Nations country teams, which work closely with host governments. Through the Global Migration Group, the Office also requested contributions from other United Nations entities and regional organizations. Contributions were received from the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Labour Organization (ILO), the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-Women). II. Framework for technical cooperation in the context of migration 8. The movement of people across national boundaries is a universal human phenomenon. Approximately 244 million people, or 3 per cent of the world’s population, currently live outside their countries of origin, and approximately half of them are women and girls. Of these, ILO estimated in December 2015 that some 150 million were migrant workers.1 9. Migration is a multifaceted and complex phenomenon. It may be temporary or permanent, forced or voluntary, and makes use of regular and irregular channels of travel. Migrants move within and between countries of the global South and North, and migration affects all regions of the world. Migration patterns have a powerful impact on the economies, societies and cultures of countries of origin, transit and destination. At the same time, it must always be remembered that at the heart of migration are individual human beings who are entitled to the full range of human rights. 10. While many migrants are able freely and safely to move, live and work with dignity, millions of migrants are driven into insecure and vulnerable conditions as a result of economic disparities, conflict, environmental degradation, limited regular opportunities for migration, lack of access to rights such as health and education, and discrimination. Furthermore, as governments seek to combat irregular migration, including by strengthened 1 4 ILO Global estimates of migrant workers and migrant domestic workers: results and methodology (ILO, Geneva, 2015).