A/HRC/23/43 III. Legal aid A. Introduction 20. Legal aid is an essential component of a fair and efficient justice system founded on the rule of law. It is also a right in itself and an essential precondition for the exercise and enjoyment of a number of human rights, including the right to a fair trial and the right to an effective remedy. Access to legal advice and assistance is also an important safeguard that helps to ensure fairness and public trust in the administration of justice. 21. Several international and regional human rights treaties recognize access to free legal assistance as an essential component of the right to a fair trial. Article 14 (3) (d) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights lists, among the procedural guarantees available to persons charged with a criminal offence, the right “to defend himself in person or through legal assistance of his own choosing; to be informed, if he does not have legal assistance, of this right; and to have legal assistance assigned to him, in any case where the interests of justice so require, and without payment by him in any such case if he does not have sufficient means to pay for it.” 22. Article 18 (3)(d) of the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families includes a formulation that is almost identical to that included in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The Convention on the Rights of the Child recognizes that children deprived of their liberty and those alleged as, accused of or recognized as having infringed criminal law have the right to have access to “legal and other appropriate assistance” (arts. 37 (d) and 40 (2)(b)(ii) and (iii)), but does not contain any express reference to free legal assistance. In its general comment No. 10, however, the Committee on the Rights of the Child stressed that this assistance should be free of charge.1 23. Among regional instruments, the right to free legal assistance is recognized in both the European and Inter-American systems. Article 6 (3)(c) of the European Convention on Human Rights includes the right of the accused to be given free legal assistance when that person does not have sufficient means to pay for it and the interests of justice so require in the list of “minimum rights” of defendants in criminal proceedings. Article 8 (2)(e) of the American Convention on Human Rights qualifies the right to be assisted by counsel provided by the State as an “inalienable right” but, unlike the United Nations and the European texts, it does not include any reference to the interests of justice or the financial situation of the defendant. 24. The right to free legal assistance has been proclaimed in a large number of United Nations legal instruments, including the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners,2 the Body of Principles for the Protection of All Persons under Any Form of Detention or Imprisonment,3 the Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers, 4 the Rules for the Protection of Juveniles Deprived of their Liberty (“the Havana Rules”) 5 and the Standard Minimum Rules for the Administration of Juvenile Justice (“the Beijing Rules”).6 1 2 3 4 5 6 CRC/C/GC/10, para. 49. Economic and Social Council resolutions 663 C (XXIV) and 2076 (LXII), para. 93. General Assembly resolution 43/173, annex, principle 17, para. 2. Adopted at the Eighth United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders, Havana, 27 August to 7 September 1990, principle 6. General Assembly resolution 45/113, annex, para. 18(a). General Assembly resolution 40/33, rule 15.1. 5