A/HRC/4/62 page 16 aspects of economic, political and social life.31 Accordingly, efforts to address serious violations of international humanitarian law on the one hand and promote economic growth on the other, however crucial, will not bring the expected results - sustainable peace - if systemic violations of economic, social and cultural rights are not explicitly addressed alongside them. This calls for legal and institutional foundations for the protection of economic, social and cultural rights. 45. In post-conflict settings, legislative and institutional frameworks are marked by the conflict in a variety of ways: they may contribute to impunity or contain discriminatory elements, while they rarely reflect the minimum requirements set by international human rights standards.32 Therefore, a further step towards ensuring that human rights violations will not be perpetuated in the future is the creation or strengthening of an inclusive system of governance, politically, economically and socially, which guarantees non-discriminatory access to public services, power and resources for all. This is extremely relevant for the realization of economic, social and cultural rights. 46. A compelling starting point in this respect is peace agreements, which are usually seen to precede the post-conflict phase. Peace agreements not only end a conflict and a pattern of gross human rights violations. In addition, they often lay the foundations for a wide range of political, legal or judicial arrangements and processes which may greatly support renewed State accountability and the reconstruction of a society based on the rule of law. In this respect, the potential of peace agreements for protecting human rights in the long run should be further explored, notwithstanding the tensions between human rights considerations and the need for a rapid peace settlement.33 47. The High Commissioner for Human Rights has stressed that when peace agreements include human rights,34 they should give adequate consideration to economic, social and cultural rights.35 The inclusion of these rights in peace agreements would seem particularly crucial if violations of them were sources of the conflict. While peace agreements tend to recognize only civil and political rights, some agreements have expressly acknowledged the importance of social justice and the need to guarantee a number of economic, cultural and social rights, in particular those of marginalized groups, as a means to address widespread patterns of 31 P. Collier, et al., op. cit. 32 S/2004/616, para. 27. 33 Ibid., para. 64 (Recommendations). 34 See, for example, The International Council on Human Rights Policy, Human Rights in Peace Agreements, 2006. 35 High Commissioner for Human Rights, “Economic and social justice for societies in transition”, op. cit.

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