A/HRC/4/123 page 7 (d) The importance of international cooperation in assisting Governments to fulfil their obligation to protect and promote all human rights, including economic, social and cultural rights, while emphasizing that the primary responsibility for promoting and protecting human rights lies with States; (e) The inextricable link between full respect for the rights contained in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the process of development, the central purpose of which is the realization of the potentialities of the human person with the effective participation of all members of society in relevant decision-making processes as agents and beneficiaries of development, as well as with a fair distribution of its benefits; 2. Calls upon all States: (a) To give full effect to economic, social and cultural rights; (b) To consider signing and ratifying, and the States parties to implement, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, as well as other international instruments related to the realization of economic, social and cultural rights; (c) To guarantee that economic, social and cultural rights shall be exercised without discrimination of any kind; (d) To secure progressively, through national development policies and with international assistance and cooperation, full realization of economic, social and cultural rights, giving particular attention to the individuals and communities living in extreme poverty and therefore most vulnerable and disadvantaged; (e) To promote the effective and wide participation of representatives of civil society in decision-making processes related to the promotion and protection of economic, social and cultural rights, including through efforts to identify and strengthen good governance practices; 3. Welcomes the six recent ratifications of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and calls upon the States parties to the Covenant: (a) To withdraw reservations incompatible with the object and purpose of the Covenant and to consider reviewing other reservations with a view to withdrawing them; (b) To submit their reports to the Committee in a regular and timely manner; (c) To promote a concerted national effort to ensure the participation of representatives of all sectors of civil society in the process of preparation of their periodic reports to the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and in the implementation of the recommendations of the Committee; (d) To ensure that the Covenant is taken into account in all of their relevant national and international policy-making processes;