A/HRC/23/43 professional.44 Legal assistance provides children with the means to understand legal proceedings, to defend their rights and to make their voices heard. In practice, however, the availability and quality of legal aid for children both in and out of detention varies dramatically from one jurisdiction to another. 85. Guideline 10 of the United Nations Principles and Guidelines recommends that States adopt special measures to promote children‟s effective access to justice and to prevent stigmatization. Such measures should include ensuring the right of the child to have counsel assigned to represent him or her; prohibiting any interviewing of a child in the absence of his or her lawyer or other legal aid provider; ensuring that children may consult freely and in full confidentiality with parents and/or guardians and legal representatives; providing information on legal rights in a manner appropriate for the child‟s age and maturity, and in a language that the child can understand; encouraging, where appropriate, the use of alternative measures and sanctions to the deprivation of liberty; and ensuring that children have the right to legal aid so that deprivation of liberty is a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time. IV. Conclusions 86. Legal aid is an essential element of a fair, human and efficient system of administration of justice that is based on the rule of law. It is a foundation for the enjoyment of other rights, including the right to a fair trial and the right to an effective remedy, a precondition to exercising such rights and an important safeguard that ensures fundamental fairness and public trust in the administration of justice. 87. The Special Rapporteur considers that the aim of legal aid is to contribute to the elimination of obstacles and barriers that impair or restrict access to justice by providing assistance to people otherwise unable to afford legal counsel, representation and access to the court system. Accordingly, the definition of legal aid should be as broad as possible and include the provision of effective legal assistance in any judicial or extrajudicial procedure aimed at determining rights and obligations. Furthermore, legal aid should not be limited to covering only legal assistance and representation in criminal, administrative and civil proceedings, but should also include legal education, access to legal information and other services provided through alternative dispute resolution mechanisms and restorative justice processes. 88. In accordance with this broader definition of legal aid services, the Special Rapporteur believes that notion of beneficiaries of legal aid should not only include defendants in criminal proceedings but should also include (a) any person whose rights or freedoms have been violated as a result of an act, or a failure to act, perpetrated by a State actor; and (b) any person who participates in judicial or extrajudicial procedures aimed at determining rights and obligations “in a suit at law”. 89. States bear the primary responsibility to develop and implement an effective and sustainable legal aid system that draws from international human rights standards and recognized good practices. If the right to legal aid is not already guaranteed by national legislation or practices, States are required to make such changes to their legislation and practices as necessary to ensure their conformity with 44 18 Child Rights International Network, Legal Assistance Toolkit for Children and Children‟s Rights Organisations, 2013. Available from www.crin.org/docs/CRIN_Legal_Assistance_Toolkit_Updated_2013.pdf.