A/HRC/42/38
rights protected by the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights that
contribute to the realization of the right to development.
138. The present guidelines emphasize that available mechanisms should be reliable,
prompt and guarantee remedy. In addition, proposals are made to address the practical
obstacles individuals and communities face in seeking justice, such as the lack of legal
standing to bring forward cases that would uphold the right to development, the lack of
jurisdiction over such cases and the inaccessibility of accountability mechanisms due to
their costliness or remoteness.
139. The practical recommendations set out below include measures that might provide
accountability and effective remedy in circumstances where the right to development has
been infringed.
National level
140. States should adopt legal provisions making economic, social and cultural rights and
the right to development justiciable. States should provide additional avenues through
which to claim economic, social and cultural rights, including quasi-judicial mechanisms.
141. States should enact legislation that enables public interest litigation. Such litigation
should ensure compliance not only with domestic laws but also with agreed international
norms related to the right to development.
142. States should use the observations and recommendations of human rights
mechanisms to enhance protection of the right to development, as well as of economic,
social and cultural rights, through case law at the local and national levels.
143. States should make accountability mechanisms more visible and accessible,
including to persons speaking minority languages and to persons with disabilities.
144. States should ensure that domestic judicial processes are transparent; they should
make the outcomes of cases, including statistics on decisions taken, publicly available.
145.
States should strengthen the legal standing of victims in judicial processes.
146. States should reverse legislation that precludes persons deprived of legal capacity
from challenging this status and thereby having the standing to bring cases forward.
147. In order to achieve a number of the Sustainable Development Goals and related
targets, States should adopt and implement comprehensive laws on equality, which include
mechanisms providing effective remedies for discrimination.
148. In line with target 10.3 of the Sustainable Development Goals, States should adopt
anti-discrimination legislation that provides an avenue for bringing cases to national courts.
The legislation should contain comprehensive definitions of discrimination and grounds for
discrimination, which should include all the grounds prohibited under international human
rights law. The legislation should be effectively enforced.
149. States should remove economic and other obstacles to accessing justice, especially
in cases involving violations of economic, social and cultural rights. States should provide
free legal aid to indigenous peoples and other individuals and communities, not only for
criminal cases but also for cases involving violations of economic, social and cultural
rights.
150. States should strengthen domestic judicial remedies to deliver timely relief.
Specifically:
(a)
States should require the perpetrators of human rights violations related to the
right to development to resolve their cases. Perpetrators should be subject to compensation
deadlines;
(b)
States should provide not only judicial remedies but also administrative
remedies, such as facilitating access to public services, in relation to the right to
development;
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