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of justice is not prevented by corruption of the judicial process, that courts
are independent of economic or political pressures from other State agents
and from business actors, and that the legitimate and peaceful activities of
human rights defenders are not obstructed.
Legal barriers that can prevent legitimate cases involving business-related
human rights abuse from being addressed can arise where, for example:
• T he way in which legal responsibility is attributed among members of
a corporate group under domestic criminal and civil laws facilitates the
avoidance of appropriate accountability;
• W
here claimants face a denial of justice in a host State and cannot
access home State courts regardless of the merits of the claim;
• W
here certain groups, such as indigenous peoples and migrants, are
excluded from the same level of legal protection of their human rights
that applies to the wider population.
Practical and procedural barriers to accessing judicial remedy can arise
where, for example:
• T he costs of bringing claims go beyond being an appropriate deterrent
to unmeritorious cases and/or cannot be reduced to reasonable levels
through Government support, "market-based" mechanisms (such as
litigation insurance and legal fee structures), or other means;
• C
laimants experience difficulty in securing legal representation, due to
a lack of resources or of other incentives for lawyers to advise claimants
in this area;
• T here are inadequate options for aggregating claims or enabling
representative proceedings (such as class actions and other collective
action procedures), and this prevents effective remedy for individual
claimants;
• S
tate prosecutors lack adequate resources, expertise and support to
meet the State’s own obligations to investigate individual and business
involvement in human rights-related crimes.
Many of these barriers are the result of, or compounded by, the frequent
imbalances between the parties to business-related human rights claims,
such as in their financial resources, access to information and expertise.
Moreover, whether through active discrimination or as the unintended
Select target paragraph3
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