A/HRC/31/32 3. Employment services 23. The existence of specialized services to assist workers to access appropriate work, using information networks at the relevant level, is a necessary component of the employment policies required for fulfilling the right to work. 28 The importance of these services increases in times of crisis; they are vital for vulnerable groups, such as migrants and long-term unemployed workers, facilitating their placement. 29 Consequently, specialized services must be adequately equipped to fulfil their mandates without discrimination, thus promoting equality and accessibility.30 24. States have a duty to provide free public employment services and, when registering or licensing private services, to ensure the regulation and monitoring of their activities to prevent abuses. No cost or fee should be charged directly or indirectly to workers benefiting from public and private employment services, 31 which should respect fundamental rights such as freedom of association and the prohibition of discrimination, forced or child labour and trafficking in persons. 32 4. Technical and vocational education and guidance 25. Technical and vocational education and guidance is another essential component of measures required to create equal conditions in the labour market, since unequal access to opportunities for training and capacity-building results in inequalities in the labour market. Acquiring, developing and updating skills and knowledge is a key part of personal development and self-fulfilment through professional life, and all aspects are core to the right to work.33 Articles 23 and 26 (1) of the Universal Declaration and articles 6 (2) and 13 (2) of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights link the right to work to the right to education as a means for personal development and meaningful participation in society, since technical and vocational guidance and training are part of education in general.34 Technical and vocational training should be promoted, together with equality and accessibility, for both those seeking work and those seeking to improve their skills in a trade or profession. 35 26. For members of minority and vulnerable groups, barriers to equal access to education and guidance and technical-professional training reduce professional and job opportunities.36 Special measures are essential for these groups to combat inequality. 37 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 General comment No. 18, paras. 12 and 26. See Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, concluding observations on Bosnia and Herzegovina (E/C.12/BIH/CO/2), noting that persons working in the informal sector are sanctioned by still having their registration with the employment bureaux suspended for a period of six months. Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, general comment No. 2 (2014) on accessibility, para. 41. See ILO Convention No. 181, art. 7 and ILO, General Survey (2010), chap. III. See observations of the ILO Committee of Experts regarding Conventions Nos. 88 and 181 in General Survey (2010), chap. III. See ILO Human Resources Development Convention, 1975 (No. 142), art. 1 (4) and (5). Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, general comment No. 13 (1999) on the right to education, paras. 15-16. Bulgaria, Egypt, Fiji, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Slovenia and Spain highlight good practices in their training programmes for work. See also Declaration of Philadelphia, art. III (j). The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has expressed concern about unequal access to professional training for minority and vulnerable groups and recommended the adoption of measures to El Salvador (E/C.12/SLV/CO/3-5), Bosnia and Herzegovina (E/C.12/BIH/CO/2), Bulgaria (E/C.12/BGR/CO/4-5), Norway (E/C.12/NOR/CO/5), Ukraine (E/C.12/UKR/CO/6), Armenia (E/C.12/ARM/CO/2-3), Austria (E/C.12/AUT/CO/4), Morocco (E/C.12/MAR/CO/3), 7