PART TWO: CONTENT OF COMPREHENSIVE ANTI-DISCRIMINATION LAW III. JUSTICE AND ENFORCEMENT SUMMARY • For the right to non-discrimination to be practical and effective, individuals exposed to discrimination must be ensured access to justice. PART TWO – III • Effective access to justice consists of justiciability, availability, accessibility, quality and accountability. • To meet these requirements States should establish and maintain well-resourced, independent and impartial judicial and other enforcement bodies to deal with discrimination complaints throughout their territory, including in rural areas. • Such bodies must be of good quality, equality-sensitive, accountable, responsive to user needs and participatory. • Barriers to equal participation must be identified and removed, including through accessibility measures and procedural accommodations. • Legal aid and support should be provided wherever necessary to ensure that the right to nondiscrimination is realizable for all individuals and groups whose rights have been violated. • An inclusive approach should be taken to rules regulating legal standing and the participation of interested third parties. • Anti-discrimination legislation should ensure that, in proceedings before a court or other competent authority in which a litigant provides facts from which it may be presumed that there has been discrimination (a prima facie case), it shall be for the respondent to prove that there has been no violation of the right to non-discrimination. • Anti-discrimination legislation should ensure that there are no barriers to the admissibility of evidence that could establish discrimination. • States should ensure that individuals can submit complaints of discrimination to the United Nations treaty bodies by ratifying the relevant optional protocols and making the necessary declarations under the relevant international human rights instruments. States should ensure that anti-discrimination legislation identifies complaints to the treaty bodies as a specific means of securing remedy. For the rights to equality and non-discrimination to be effective they must be enforced. This requires the adoption of a wide range of legal and practical measures designed to ensure, and remove barriers to, justice and enable victims to secure remedy. While these measures may be detailed in separate laws, policies, institutions or structures, the effectiveness of comprehensive anti-discrimination legislation is dependent on their application and, as such, the necessary standards must be codified in law – whether in such laws or in separate laws. This part of the present guide examines the requirements of enforcement and access to justice in cases in which rights to equality or non-discrimination are alleged to have been violated. As part of an effective enforcement system, practical measures must be put in place to ensure the accessibility, availability, justiciability and quality of justice for survivors of discrimination and ensure their full and active participation in the justice process, without stigmatization or victimization. Adaptations to rules of evidence and legal provisions regulating the burden of proof are required to remove barriers to justice for persons and groups who have experienced discrimination. This chapter also contains a discussion of matters specific to vindicating the rights to equality and non-discrimination in judicial or other procedures, including legal standing. 87