A/HRC/8/4 page 18 the fact that, taken individually, the violations are of minor importance. Group claims keep the length and cost of proceedings down and also facilitate the administration of justice. In addition, such actions may be seen as a healthy means of influencing the political and social agenda and redeeming the weaknesses of certain democratic institutions and regimes. 41. Public Prosecutor’s Office - The proper functioning of this institution is a factor in the exercise of the right of access to justice. The Guidelines on the Role of Prosecutors provide guidance to Governments in ensuring it performs not only its primary function of exercising the right of public action but also the tasks of guaranteeing legality, protecting human rights and carrying out investigations, where such functions are also assigned to it. Despite this, the Special Rapporteur has been obliged to intervene on numerous occasions in which prosecutors’ work was subjected to interference or their results led to a violation of their rights. Recent developments have led to prosecutors taking on more responsibilities and pushing back the bounds of their functional independence, with more scope for action to promote access to justice. 42. Public defenders - Until the State began to bear the costs of legal assistance for people without the means to pay for it, it was universities and bar associations that provided such assistance - the universities through community legal centres, and the bar associations using a roster or shift system - in the conviction that there was a moral obligation.48 Now, however, States have accepted their international obligation to guarantee access to justice and the right to a defence, which requires them to adopt public policies and, where necessary, provide social services. Also as a result of recent developments, some countries have endowed public defenders with real judges’ powers. In Latin America, the percentage of criminal cases in which defendants are represented by public defenders is generally more than 80 per cent of the total in the system. In Argentina, 60 per cent of those involved in oral proceedings are defended by officially appointed defence counsels.49 3. The impact of corruption and judicial delay 43. Transparency and promptness are essential components of an efficient system of justice administration. The Special Rapporteur has had occasion to refer to these issues in depth in his previous reports and he therefore confines himself here to reiterating that the problems of corruption and judicial delay are two of the factors that have the greatest negative impact on the judicial system as a whole. E. Access to justice in relation to economic, social and cultural rights 44. For various political and ideological reasons, economic, social and cultural rights have made considerably less progress since their establishment than civil and political rights in terms 48 F. Tietgen, “The Paris Bar: Access to justice and access to legal advise”, Fordham International Law Journal, vol. 24, 1999-2000, p. 219. 49 López Puleio, María Fernanda (2002) “Justicia penal y defensa pública” y Martínez, Stella Maris “Defensa pública, derecho del pueblo” en Defensa Pública, Revista Latinoamericana de Política Criminal No. 5, Buenos Aires, pp. 23-48 y 49-58.