A/HRC/29/33 “severe cases”.12 The practice of tolerating and justifying milder forms of violence can pave the way to severe violations of human rights, which can amount to grave violations and even atrocities. 107. Any form of violence, including collective violence, does not originate in a vacuum. Violence has roots in unhealthy relationships amongst individuals, and is reinforced by the failure to promote and protect good-quality human relations, starting with relationships between an infant and the primary caregiver. The cycle of violence is reinforced when children grow up — whether in families or in institutions — without having their basic needs satisfied, which include not only the need to survive, but the need to feel secure and thus to enjoy the right to healthy development. 108. The most powerful way of preventing the epidemics of violence and different forms of insecurity in the modern world is the provision of holistic support to all forms of family unit, including access to food, shelter, health care and education, but also the provision of basic parenting skills. The quality of relationships between individuals in society is an increasingly important element in the realization of the right to health and the prevention of the cycle of violence. The right to a healthy environment should include not only the physical environment, but also the emotional and psychosocial environment in all settings, family units, schools, workplace, communities and societies at large. 109. The resilience and the protective factors in individuals, families communities and societies need to be promoted, and more investment in healthy human relationships, emotional and social well-being and social capital is required. The empowerment of all stakeholders — without exception — is an effective way of addressing major public health threats and violations of human rights, including the right to health. G. The role of stakeholders 110. The Special Rapporteur considers the active and informed participation of all stakeholders to be one of the key elements of the analytical framework of the right to health. There is growing understanding and evidence that top-down relations between governments and local authorities and populations, including civil society, and paternalistic relations between health personnel and users of health-care services do not effectively contribute to the realization of the right to health. 111. The meaningful involvement of all actors and the empowerment of those who make use of services, especially the poor and other groups in vulnerable situations, is a crucial precondition for the full realization of the enjoyment by everyone of the right to health and other rights. 112. Civil society actors should be able to do their work for the promotion and protection of human rights, including the right to health, in safe and enabling environments and should not suffer from criminalization, stigmatization or harassment of any sort because of the work that they do (see the report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, A/HRC/25/55). The Special Rapporteur believes that there is a clear and direct link between the environment in which civil society operates in a given country and the level of realization of basic rights and freedoms, not only of the public freedoms that are necessary to advocating for human rights, but also of the specific rights for which they advocate. If civil society actors are harassed or persecuted due to their work advocating for 12 18 See Geoffrey Rose, “A large number of people exposed to al small risk may generate many more cases than a small number exposed to a high risk”, in The Strategy of Preventive Medicine (Oxford University Press, 1992).