A/HRC/40/61 persons with disabilities, focused on dignity, substantive equality, accessibility and participation and ensuring the right to live independently in the community. 78 52. Children’s access to justice for the right to housing must be founded on the principle of the best interests of the child and require the legal empowerment of children through access to information and support, provided in an age-appropriate manner, and ensure effective means to claim their rights. 79 Special measures must be taken to provide access to justice for children in street situations. According to the Committee on the Rights of the Child, this includes, “access to individual complaints mechanisms, by children themselves and/or represented by adults, and to judicial and non-judicial redress mechanisms at the local and national levels, including independent human rights institutions”.80 53. Access to justice for racial and ethnic minorities must address the intersection of systemic racism and violations of the right to housing. The International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination prohibits discrimination in housing based on race, colour, or national or ethnic origin and ensures equality in the enjoyment of the right to housing. Discrimination and evictions facing Roma communities in Europe and the disproportionate number of African Americans among the homeless in the United States are examples of grossly unequal enjoyment of the right to housing that require enhanced access to justice for structural remedies. Remedies must include positive measures to address systemic inequality in housing conditions as well as preventing racial discrimination in access to land, mortgages, rental housing and services. Discrimination on the grounds of race and ethnicity intersecting with other grounds, including socioeconomic status and gender, must be recognized. 54. Access to justice for migrants must ensure effective remedies for widespread systemic discrimination in access to shelters and public and private housing. 81 Migrants must be empowered to challenge laws that exclude them from accessing social housing or that forbid private landlords from renting to them. Where migrants themselves are not in a position to advance claims on their own behalf, claims should be heard from representative organizations. Migrants must have access to legal assistance without requiring disclosure of their immigration status to public authorities and, where necessary, access to complaints procedures that preserve anonymity. Violations of the right to housing of migrants cannot be justified as measures to discourage irregular migration. VII. Access to justice beyond courts A. National human rights institutions 55. National human rights institutions have a clear responsibility and a critical role to play in promoting and ensuring access to justice for the right to housing. To qualify as such under the principles relating to the status of national institutions for the promotion and protection of human rights (the Paris Principles), human rights commissions, ombudspersons or public defenders are required to identify and address areas of State noncompliance with obligations to ensure access to justice for violations of all human rights. They should therefore examine legislative and administrative provisions relating to the right to housing to ensure compliance with the normative framework for access to justice as described above. While many national human rights institutions have failed to devote equal resources to economic, social and cultural rights, and to the right to housing in particular, 78 79 80 81 A/72/128, paras. 1–7 and 17–19. A/HRC/25/35. General comment No. 21 (2017) on children in street situations, para. 22. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, General Recommendation No. 30 (2004) on discrimination against non-citizens. 15