A/HRC/42/38 expertise and foster a sense of ownership in the process of development while also producing less costly outputs. Civil society participation especially requires freedom of expression and access to information. 24. Governments and international cooperation partners should establish participatory and effective decision-making mechanisms. These mechanisms should involve groups affected by particular development policies, programmes and projects. 25. States have a duty to ensure that non-State actors, including corporations they host or incorporate, as well as parent or controlling companies, conduct their activities in line with international human rights standards and in line with the clearly expressed priorities of affected and beneficiary communities. Governments should also enact legislation clearly setting out the parameters of public participation in public-private partnership schemes. 26. To avoid perpetuating existing inequalities, when undertaking development programmes States should pay close attention to intersecting grounds of discrimination, including discrimination on the grounds of race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, nationality, social origin, property, birth, disability or other status. 27. Governments should promote channels of participation on a continuous basis. There should be opportunities for the equal participation of those who are more disadvantaged, including people with disabilities, women, children and youth, minorities, indigenous peoples, Afrodescendants and members of other disempowered or marginalized groups. States should provide opportunities for communities to “opt in” in cases where decisions are being made that affect them but where they have not been affirmatively identified as an affected population. Specifically: (a) States receiving migrants should see these rights holders as agents of development rather than addressing migration as a security issue; (b) States should ensure that all people, including members of minorities, have legal identity and equal access to personal identification documents as the absence of such documentation prevents participation and risks the accumulation of rights violations (e.g. in terms of access to health care, education, housing, employment, social protection and voting); (c) States should mobilize youth as agents of change and development. 28. Governments should promote quality representation of women and marginalized populations in decision-making at the national level, including by increasing the representation of members of such groups in public and private institutions. Often women and marginalized populations are seen as the beneficiaries of development programmes; rarely are they among the decision makers or those consulted. 29. As part of their gender-oriented planning, States should take into consideration the fact that women are not a homogeneous group and therefore pay particular attention to women who face multiple vulnerabilities and are harder to reach. 30. States should integrate human rights and the right to development into their national curricula. 31. States should promote human rights education that emphasizes gender-sensitivity and non-discrimination at all levels to allow people to make informed decisions and participate in political, economic, social and cultural development. 32. States should establish mechanisms that provide easy access to information related to development policies and processes and enact legislation guaranteeing access to information, including information about project financing, including co-financing, and about the Sustainable Development Goals. 33. Governments should define reliable and up-to-date information schemes when development plans are being designed. Government institutions should devote adequate resources to information-sharing and be mandated to produce and disclose information in a timely fashion. Legal remedies should be provided to ensure that access to information is not denied. 6