A/HRC/30/40 understand and prevent disproportionate implications and impacts of hazardous substances and wastes on individuals and specific population groups, including different ages, incomes, ethnicities, genders as well as minorities and indigenous peoples. The right to information should be implemented with particular care so that no one is excluded through direct or indirect discrimination, particularly through the imposition of unreasonable eligibility conditions or inattention to their particular circumstances. D. Limitations to the right to information on hazardous substances and wastes 38. Confidentiality claims must be legitimate in accordance with international human rights standards. Under the principle of maximum disclosure there is a presumption that all information held by public bodies should be subject to disclosure, subject to a narrow set of public-interest limitations. To this end, the right to information is subject to certain legitimate, public-interest limitations in accordance with article 19 (3) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Any limitation must be provided by law; it must be to protect the rights or reputation of others or to protect national security, public order, public health or morals; and it must be proved to be necessary and to be no more restrictive than is required to achieve the purported aim (see A/HRC/14/23, paras. 72–87). 39. An analysis of relevant human rights provisions indicates several common criteria, namely, conformity with the law, principle of legitimacy, principle of proportionality and necessity, reasonable purpose and objective and protection of the right of others (see A/68/362, para. 51). Grounds for refusal of access to information should be interpreted in a restrictive way, taking into account the public interest served by disclosure. The balancing of interests is widely established under national and international laws. It is not legitimate to limit access to information because the information seeker did not provide an interest or reasons for the request to access information. 27 40. It is generally acknowledged that there is an overriding public interest in the disclosure of information concerning serious violations of human rights and humanitarian law (see A/68/362, para. 37). Article 6 of the Declaration on the Right and Responsibility of Individuals, Groups and Organs of Society to Promote and Protect Universally Recognized Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms expressly provides that everyone has the right to information regarding human rights violations. Countries have laws to override confidentiality claims in cases where the information requested relates to human rights violations or is relevant to investigate, prevent or avoid violations thereof. 41. Among the types of information that should never be confidential is information about systematic or widespread human right violations, and information about other violations of human rights that would prevent accountability, meaningful public participation or access to an effective remedy (ibid.). The potential for the mismanagement of hazardous substances and wastes to lead to systematic or widespread human rights violations is widely known. 42. To this end, certain types of information about hazardous substances cannot be legitimately claimed as confidential. It is not legitimate to claim that public health and 27 10 UNEP, Guidelines for the Development of National Legislation on Access to Information, Public Participation and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters (2010), guideline 1; Claude Reyes et al. v. Chile, Series C No. 151, 19 September 2006, Inter-American Court of Human Rights; and the Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-Making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters, art. 4, para. 1 (a).