A/HRC/42/38 34. States and other actors should employ technology and digital networks, as appropriate, as vehicles for increased participation, bearing in mind that participation cannot be facilitated through technology alone given that access to technology is not uniform. 35. National human rights institutions should engage in public education to empower communities to claim their rights. 36. National human rights institutions should, within the scope of their mandates, act as platforms for participation, including by facilitating the gathering and sharing of information about development programmes. 37. States should respect the right of indigenous peoples to self-determination to fulfil the right to development. Indigenous peoples should be empowered to develop their own development priorities and provide their free, prior and informed consent as guaranteed by the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989 (No. 169), of the International Labour Organization. 38. States should guarantee access to information and meaningful participation for all stakeholders in decision-making on the extraction of natural resources. 39. States should understand participation as a continuum that involves consultation, participation, monitoring and evaluation, and access to justice. These elements should be the components of any integrated participation scheme. Regional and international levels 40. States and intergovernmental organizations should promote and strengthen civil society awareness-raising efforts related to the right to development at the regional level; develop civil society networks across their region to share good practices and successes; and create bridges between various civil society actors working in the fields of development, human rights, peace and security. 41. States should guarantee that all stakeholders are meaningfully included in the process of negotiating international agreements, including international trade agreements. Doing so requires building the capacity of States and non-State representatives engaged in negotiation processes. Information on upcoming initiatives should be made available at the national level at an early stage so that civil society and concerned communities can participate in multilateral negotiation processes. 42. States should design development assistance programmes with the aim of furthering the development priorities of countries that receive bilateral aid, and ensure that the development priorities of recipient countries have been set following meaningful participation processes within the recipient State. 43. Governments should widen the civic space to allow the democratic and meaningful participation of all stakeholders in multilateral processes, including those related to climate change. 44. Global and regional intergovernmental organizations should centralize the concept of stakeholder participation in their strategic planning on development processes. Non-State actors 45. All actors, including institutions, businesses and investors, who produce information about development projects should provide that information transparently. Specifically: (a) Information about development projects should be shared with the affected communities as a matter of priority, in the language of those communities and in accessible formats. The information might need to be translated into local and indigenous languages; (b) Information should be shared in a format that is accessible to target populations (for example, technical information should be conveyed using language understood by laypersons; moreover, information should be made available online or be provided in conjunction with training to enable communities to access the information by telephone). 7