A/HRC/10/61 page 27 82. Equally, human rights standards underline the need to prioritize access of all persons to at least basic levels of economic, social and cultural rights, such as access to basic medical care, essential drugs and to compulsory primary education free of charge. 83. The human rights framework also stresses the importance of accountability mechanisms in the implementation of measures and policies in the area of climate change and requires access to administrative and judicial remedies in cases of human rights violations.117 B. Obligations of international cooperation 84. Climate change can only be effectively addressed through cooperation of all members of the international community.118 Moreover, international cooperation is important because the effects and risk of climate change are significantly higher in low-income countries. 85. International cooperation to promote and protect human rights lies at the heart of the Charter of the United Nations.119 The importance of such cooperation is explicitly stated in provisions of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities and in the Declaration on the Right to Development.120 According to CESCR and the Committee on the Rights of the Child, the obligation to take steps to the maximum of available resources to implement economic, social and cultural rights includes an obligation of States, where necessary, to seek international cooperation.121 States have also committed themselves not only to 117 Useful guidance on how human rights standards and principles can be incorporated into policy measures are found in various guidance tools, including Frequently Asked Questions on a Human Rights-Based Approach to Development Cooperation; OHCHR (2006), Principles and Guidelines for a Human Rights Approach to Poverty Reduction Strategies, available at http://www.ohchr.org/EN/PublicationsResources/Pages/SpecialIssues.aspx. 118 In the words of the special procedures mandate holders of the Human Rights Council, in a joint statement on International Human Rights Day, 10 December 2008: “Today the interests of States, and the impacts of actions by States, are ever more interconnected. New challenges include ensuring global access to food, and those presented by climate change and financial crisis have potentially massive human rights and development implications. If we are to confront them effectively we must do so collectively.” 119 See articles 1, paragraph 3, 55 and 56. 120 ICESCR, arts. 2, para. 1, 11, para. 2, 15, para. 4, 22 and 23; Convention on the Rights of the Child, arts. 4 and 24, para. 4; CRPD, art. 32; Declaration on the Right to Development, arts. 3, 4 and 6. 121 CESCR, general comment No. 3, para. 11; Committee on the Rights of the Child, general comment No. 5 (2003) on general measures of implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (arts. 4, 42 and 44, para. 6), para. 7.