"Whether migrants fall so low so as to be below the guard of protection provided by the ensemble of international human rights treaties is the question at the heart of this research paper. There is a lack of public comprehensive research on whether governments extend the provisions of the international human rights treaties they have ratified to protect the human rights of migrants and not only the rights of their own nationals. To fill this gap, the International Catholic Migration Commission (ICMC) and December 18 vzw, with support from UNESCO, engaged in a research project to study country specific conclusions and recommendations issued by bodies of experts tasked with supervising the implementation of these conventions. The research was carried out in Geneva between May and July 2004. The data compiled over the 10-week research period provides some useful initial pointers as to current practice and priorities in the six treaty monitoring bodies (TMB). While irregular migrants make news headlines and occupy centre stage in regional migration management consultative processes, TMB conclusions highlight the existing gap in ensuring non-discrimination and equal treatment with nationals for migrants and members of their families, as provided for in human rights treaties. Migration affects most countries today, yet only half of the TMB conclusions refer to migrant concerns. This research is part of an on-going strategy to enable civil society and other stakeholders to make better use of international human rights treaties and conventions. In order to better protect the human rights of migrants, States parties need to be prompted to follow up the recommendations of treaty monitoring bodies. As the overall UN human rights treaty monitoring system is currently subject to review, this thematic pilot research provides a ?horizontal” case-study across several treaty monitoring bodies which could be useful for United Nations, government and NGOs experts engaged in efforts to rationalize and streamline treaty monitoring and observance. This paper is also constructed so as to offer an additional perspective on migrants? rights and UN human rights treaties for the newly formed Committee on Migrant Workers..."