🎛️Elements of Effective Remedies

States and businesses have obligations to ensure effective remedies to violations of human rights.

A response to the violation of human rights must contain the following elements in order to be considered effective:

• Accessible - Rights holders should know of the existence of remedies and be able to gain access to them without inconvenience. States and businesses have obligations to ensure that all rights holders have access to education and information about their rights, the available remedies, and how to gain access to them.

• Affordable - Rights holders should be able to access remedies without consideration for cost.

• Adequate - The adequacy of remedies should be judged not only by the current needs of the rights holder but also by their future long-term needs. Rights holders should have access to competent, gender-sensitive dispute resolution systems.

• Timely - Claims must be processed quickly to avoid denial of justice.

• Proportional - The remedies provided should be proportional to the gravity of the harm caused.

Source:

1. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), General Recommendation No. 33 on Women’s Access to Justice

2. Business for Social Responsibility (BSR), Access to Remedy

Keywords: Rights Holders & Duty-Bearers

Rights Holders

Rights holders are people or social groups that have particular entitlements in relation to specific duty-bearers. In general terms, all human beings are rights-holders under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

In particular contexts, there are often specific social groups whose human rights are not fully realised, respected or protected. Aside from LGBTQIA+ people, other protected groups include women/girls, ethnic minorities, indigenous peoples, migrants and youth, for example.

A human rights-based approach does not only recognize that the entitlements of rights-holders need to be respected, protected and fulfilled, it also considers rights-holders as active agents in the realisation of human rights and development – both directly and through organisations representing their interests.

Duty-Bearers

Duty-bearers are state or non-state actors that have the obligation to respect, protect, promote, and fulfil human rights of rights-holders.

States are the main duty bearers when it comes to defending human rights. State duty-bearers include oversight bodies, national human rights institutions (NHRIs), ministries, and government agencies.

Non-state duty bearers include non-governmental organisations (NGOs), corporations, and private entities.

Adapted from the following sources:

1. Rights Holders, SC Glossary, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA)

2. Human Rights-Based Approach, European Network of National Human Rights Institutions (ENNHRI)