A/HRC/42/38
(c)
States should ensure access to justice, reparation and effective remedies for
those whose rights have been violated as a result of natural resource exploitation.
151. States should put into place effective mechanisms to guarantee that development
projects are carried out according to international transparency standards and in line with
the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development.
152. Parliamentary committees tasked with addressing issues related to the right to
development should provide oversight when the right has been violated.
153. States should employ inquiries and public hearings as additional means of
accountability.
154. In addition to judicial and administrative remedies, States should establish and
strengthen institutional grievance mechanisms through which communities and individuals
can express their concerns about development processes, including those involving the
private sector. Doing so would address the difficulties communities face in accessing
justice through the judiciary because of the protected status of corporations and avoid the
need for protests that arise from the lack of effective grievance mechanisms.
155. States where transnational corporations and other business enterprises (or their
parent or controlling companies) are hosted or incorporated should take measures –
including the necessary administrative, legislative, investigative and adjudicatory measures
– to ensure that independent authorities provide prompt, accessible and effective remedies
for the human rights violations of these enterprises.
156. Governments should regulate the actions of the private sector in line with the
Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. In particular, States should require
businesses to undertake human rights due diligence and impose criminal liability for
businesses that violate human rights.
157. National human rights institutions should take up economic, cultural, environmental
and social rights claims and claims related to the right to development. In addition to
playing a stronger role in promoting and protecting these rights, national human rights
institutions should advocate in favour of making violations of these rights justiciable in
their countries. Specifically, they should:
(a)
Refer to specific Sustainable Development Goals when analysing cases in
order to illustrate how those cases relate to development outcomes. This is particularly
relevant when national human rights institutions have signed a declaration agreeing to
monitor the implementation of the Goals in their own countries;
(b)
Actively raise issues related to the right to development at the national and
international levels, including when participating in universal periodic review processes and
in treaty body reviews;
(c)
Monitor States’ fulfilment of their extraterritorial obligations, for example in
the context of countries’ foreign investments;
(d)
Conduct investigations and put forward recommendations to Governments
not only in response to human rights violations that have already taken place but also
prospectively, to ensure that proposed development policies comply with human rights
principles.
158. States should provide a safe environment that protects human rights defenders and
civil society organizations, thereby enabling them to freely play their role in protecting the
right to development. Specifically:
(a)
States and intergovernmental organizations should consult and collaborate
with human rights defenders, recognizing the role they play in advancing the right to
development, especially in the defence of land, natural resources and the environment more
generally (see A/71/281);
(b)
States should empower and protect civil society organizations and defenders
fighting corruption and financial crimes, seeking social justice, investigating illicit financial
flows and documenting the adverse impacts of development policies and projects;
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