A/69/302
9.
Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide
access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions
at all levels
79. States have assumed obligations to ensure equal access to justice for all within
their borders by committing themselves to respecting, protecting and fulfilling
several rights, including to an effective remedy, to equality before the cour ts and
tribunals, to a fair trial, to legal assistance, to equality and equal protection of the
law, access to justice without discrimination, to recognition as a person before the
law and to seek and receive information.
80. That migration policies are rarely based on human rights and that labour laws
either do not apply to migrant work or are not implemented in favour of migrants
leave many migrants in a precarious situation, thereby preventing migrants and
States from fully maximizing the benefits of migration. Migrants face discrimination
and exploitation in the workplace and sometimes experience forced labour. They
often find themselves in debt bondage as a result of exorbitant recruitment fees.
81. Yet, irrespective of their legal status and circumstances, migrants most often
do not seek redress for the human rights and labour standards violations that they
suffer, given that they live in fear of detection, detention and deportation. This holds
especially true for the most marginalized migrants, including those in an irregular
situation and live-in migrant domestic workers, the overwhelming majority of whom
are women.
82. Migrants, with or without regular status, are routinely excluded from access to
justice on an equal footing with citizens of the co untry of destination. Migrants who
are unable to claim their rights and report abuses or violations are trapped in a
vicious circle of impunity, exploitation and marginalization. Effective and accessible
justice systems can be tools to overcome exclusion, for example through the
development of progressive jurisprudence on economic and social rights, by
enforcing the human and labour rights of migrants and by remedying their
exploitation by private or public actors.
83. The Special Rapporteur believes that this goal should focus on making the rule
of law effective: specifically ensuring that marginalized groups, including migrants,
have effective access to justice. Societies respecting the rule of law, effective access
to justice and non-discriminatory treatment by government institutions are fertile
ground for thriving and sustained development.
84. The Special Rapporteur proposes that the goal should include strengthening
the rule of law at all levels. States should adopt and implement legal, policy and
institutional guarantees for equal and effective access to justice for all, thereby
ensuring that marginalized groups, including migrants, are able to fully enjoy their
rights.
Targets and indicators
85.
Relevant targets should focus on:
(a) Providing legal identity documents to all, including migrants, who have
no such legal identification, given the profound relationship between lack of civil
legal identification and marginalization;
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