A/HRC/26/31 marketing in places such as schools, workplaces and community centres. Participation empowers people to exercise their right to autonomy and make their own decisions about their dietary health. 48. Meaningful participation has public health benefits and also empowers people in accordance with the right to health approach. States should ensure that spaces are available for children and their parents to provide input on school foods, employees to give input on food at the workplace, or by enabling community or consumer groups to be involved in standard-setting. States should seek broad public consultation to inform policies across sectors, including on agricultural production policies, the regulation of unhealthy foods, nutritional standards in public institutions and for monitoring transparency in food labelling, marketing or promotion. 49. States should encourage community health programmes on diet-related NCDs, such as peer education, community gardening and cooking initiatives, or healthy eating initiatives based at schools, workplaces, primary health-care centres or food vendors. Since addressing the risk factors of NCDs involves long-term behavioural change, ownership of health policies by local communities can ensure the success and sustainability of nutrition and preventive health programmes. The participation of local communities ensures that health policies and programmes are better targeted to their health needs. Including children’s involvement and input in school lunch programmes can help identify options that are both healthy and appealing to children, and has often shown that the perception that children prefer unhealthy options is inaccurate.72 Local participation by residents of lowincome areas may help provide an assessment of foods available in those areas that is more reflective of the day-to-day experiences of residents than expert-formulated surveys would be able to establish. Likewise, educating and involving consumers and informal sector food vendors in healthy food programmes can improve nutrition in a sector that is otherwise difficult to regulate, while also allowing such vendors to maintain their livelihoods. VIII. Accountability and remedies 50. States have an obligation to make legislative, judicial and administrative mechanisms available, accessible and effective to enable people to hold States and nonState actors accountable and claim remedies for violations of their right to health. Omission by States to legislate and enforce regulatory frameworks with respect to the food industry may in itself be a violation of the right to health. For instance, if the State fails to put into place laws requiring the provision and dissemination of information, people may not be in a position to make informed choices about their diet, which may prevent them from realizing their highest attainable standard of health. 51. States should not only ensure that relevant laws and policies are in place, but also that they are formulated, implemented and monitored in a transparent manner, in line with the right to health. Transparency should be ensured at all times, including when negotiating international obligations. Although transparency is required by some investment treaties, it is linked to the promotion and protection of international investment.73 The thrust is towards ensuring that laws and regulations, which may affect investments, are made 72 73 Katherine Bauer et al., “‘How can we stay healthy when you’re throwing all of this in front of us?’ Findings from focus groups and interviews in middle schools on environmental influences on nutrition and physical activity”, Health Education and Behavior, vol. 31, No. 1 (February 2004), pp. 40–41. World Trade Organization, Principles of the trading system, http://www.wto.org/english/thewto_e/whatis_e/tif_e/fact2_e.htm. 17