A/HRC/30/20 relevant authorities with information about compatibility or recommendations, which have led to changes in proposed laws or policy. Review may also require that draft legislation be submitted to a body prior to being sent to the legislature, with an accompanying document specifying that it has been reviewed and is compatible with the State’s human rights obligations.31 The review process may include consultation with other actors such as civil society, to provide additional information and expertise throughout the legislative process.32 Bodies mandated to undertake such a review should be independent, impartial and their comments taken into account when revising legislation or policies. 14. Further, international human rights norms and standards should become part of the national legal system33 so as to ensure they can be invoked in national courts. This requires the establishment of an effective system of administration of justice,34 with courts empowered to interpret constitutional provisions in line with the State’s human rights obligations and international or regional jurisprudence,35 and enabling them to strike down laws which are deemed unconstitutional.36 Need for a victim-centred approach to prevention 15. Provisions should be in place to provide effective remedies for victims. The establishment of effective monitoring mechanisms to check for actual and potential violations, and to ensure that groups or individuals are not discriminated against in law, policy and practice, is also key. Indeed, prevention is “as much the practice as it is the content of a State’s legislative, administrative, judicial or other measures” (CAT/OP/12/6, para. 3). 16. The legal system should be accessible to all, without discrimination on any grounds, including nationality, financial means and language. In turn, this requires that victims know about their rights, available remedies and how to access them. Similar issues arise where non-judicial remedies are used. Provision of free legal advice and pro bono services for victims of human rights violations by NHRIs, civil society, and bar associations can assist in ensuring accessibility of remedies. National human rights institutions 17. The establishment of NHRIs compliant with the Paris Principles37 constitutes another important institutional element of the preventive framework. Some are specifically 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 Response by Australia. Response by Human Rights House of Albania. Response by Togo. See Human Rights Committee General Comment 31, para. 13. Response by Promo-LEX. Response by the International Fellowship of Reconciliation. E.g. South Africa Constitutional Court: Government of the Republic of South Africa. & Ors v. Grootboom & Ors 2000 (11) BCLR 1169 (CC) (which held that the Government had failed to meet its obligation to provide for those desperately in need of adequate housing); and Minister of Health v. Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) (2002) 5 SA 721 (CC) (which held that the Government had breached its human rights obligations by failing to take reasonable measures (at affordable cost) to make wider provision of anti-retroviral medication to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV). See also People’s Union for Civil Liberties and another v. Union of India and others, Supreme Court of India, Civil Original Jurisdiction, Writ Petition (Civil) No. 196 of 2001, judgment of 2 May 2003 (concerning the right to food in the context of a preventable famine in Rajasthan). See Frequently Asked Questions on a Human Rights-Based Approach to Development Cooperation (United Nations 2006), p. 3. Principles relating to the status of national institutions, A/RES/48/134, annex. 7