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the toxic truth
chapter 10
The right to an effective remedy and reparation All victims of human rights violations have the right to an effective remedy. This right has been recognized under various international and regional human rights treaties and instruments 543 and also as a rule of customary international law.544
of restitution, compensation, satisfaction or guarantees of non-repetition.”546 The right to an effective remedy is a broad right, which has both substantive and procedural elements. It requires that victims be provided with:
The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) has clarified the obligation of states to ensure an effective remedy for violations of economic, social and cultural rights under Article 2 (1) of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR, or the Covenant). The Committee has stated that “the Covenant norms must be recognized in appropriate ways within the domestic legal order, appropriate means of redress, or remedies, must be available to any aggrieved individual or group, and appropriate means of ensuring governmental accountability must be put in place”.545
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Specifically in relation to the right to health, the Committee has emphasized that any person or groups who are victims of a violation of the right to health “should have access to effective judicial or other appropriate remedies at both national and international levels. All victims of such violations should be entitled to adequate reparation, which may take the form
Victims of the toxic waste dumping call for compensation at a protest in Abidjan, 30 November 2011 © ANP/AFP/Issouf Sanogo
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equal and effective access to justice; adequate, effective and prompt reparation for harm suffered; access to relevant information concerning violations and reparation mechanisms.547
International human rights monitoring bodies have stated that the right to an effective remedy requires that all allegations of violations are investigated thoroughly, promptly and effectively through independent and impartial mechanisms.548 The UN Human Rights Committee has also emphasized that, where investigations reveal violations, states parties must ensure that those responsible are brought to justice. The failure to investigate allegations or failure to bring to justice perpetrators of such violations could in itself give rise to a breach of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). The Human Rights Committee has stated that these obligations arise notably in respect of violations recognized as crimes under domestic and international law.549 Under the Basel Convention, states parties