A/HRC/19/21 D. Human rights in the context of migration 66. My Office has significantly stepped up its efforts in advocating for a human rights approach to migration. This builds on recent progress made, including during the chairing by OHCHR of the Global Migration Group, from July to December 2010. My Office remained an active member of the Group in 2011, and sought to highlight the human rights approach to migration in all Group statements and activities. 67. In September, the Committee on Migrant Workers held a day of general discussion on the human rights of migrant workers in an irregular situation and members of their families as the first phase in elaborating a general comment. It focused on an analysis of international treaty norms for the protection of the rights of irregular migrants, their practical application, international cooperation in protecting those rights and the criminalization and detention of irregular migrants. We concluded with the Ministry of Labour of Lebanon and the International Labour Organization (ILO) a unified contract for all migrant domestic workers employed in Lebanon. The document is in use, but the impact on the life of migrant workers is yet to be assessed. 68. The issue of criminalization of irregular migration and immigration detention also continued to be a focus of our work. A two-day global round table on alternatives to the detention of migrants, refugees, asylum-seekers and stateless persons was organized by OHCHR in partnership with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and attended by representatives of interested stakeholders in May. One conclusion was that there is no empirical evidence that immigration detention deters irregular migration, and that States should put in place effective alternatives to such detention. OHCHR also intervened as amicus curiae in the case of Hirsi and others before the European Court of Human Rights, arguing that the prohibition of collective expulsion also applies where migrants are intercepted on the high seas before they reach territorial waters. 69. In May, OHCHR organized a panel discussion in New York on the issue of migration, racism and discrimination, to examine the persistence of anti-migrant sentiments and discriminatory practices. 70. In 2011, OHCHR provided training on migration and human rights issues, including to partner agencies of the Global Migration Group, such as ILO and the International Organization for Migration (IOM). A set of training modules was tested in a pilot workshop organized by the Diplomacy Training Programme and Migrant Forum in Asia in collaboration with OHCHR, which brought together 25 participants from non-governmental organizations and national human rights institutions in the Asia-Pacific and Middle East regions. 71. I continued to call for increased ratification and the effective implementation of the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families and for States to ratify all other core international human rights instruments in order to protect and promote the human rights of all migrants. In September, in response to a request by the Human Rights Council, OHCHR presented a report on the situation of migrants and asylum-seekers fleeing recent events in North Africa (A/HRC/18/54), describing the human rights implications and concerns of the cross-border movement of migrants and asylum-seekers in this region between January and August 2011. 72. OHCHR organized a judicial colloquium on the implementation of article 3 (best interest of the child) of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in Europe with regard to the situation of migrant children, including unaccompanied and separated children. In February, OHCHR participated in the seminar on the human rights of migrant populations, 12