E/C.12/GC/24 B. Obligations to respect, to protect and to fulfil 10. The Covenant establishes specific obligations of States parties at three levels — to respect, to protect and to fulfil. These obligations apply both with respect to situations on the State’s national territory, and outside the national territory in situations over which States parties may exercise control. The extraterritorial components of the obligations are addressed separately in subsection III. C below. That section clarifies the content of States’ obligations, focusing on their duties to protect, which are the most relevant in the context of business activities. 11. The present general comment addresses the States parties to the Covenant, and in that context it only deals with the conduct of private actors — including business entities — indirectly. In accordance with international law, however, States parties may be held directly responsible for the action or inaction of business entities: (a) if the entity concerned is in fact acting on that State party’s instructions or is under its control or direction in carrying out the particular conduct at issue, 30 as may be the case in the context of public contracts;31 (b) when a business entity is empowered under the State party’s legislation to exercise elements of governmental authority32 or if the circumstances call for such exercise of governmental functions in the absence or default of the official authorities; 33 or (c) if and to the extent that the State party acknowledges and adopts the conduct as its own. 34 1. Obligation to respect 12. The obligation to respect economic, social and cultural rights is violated when States parties prioritize the interests of business entities over Covenant rights without adequate justification, or when they pursue policies that negatively affect such rights. This may occur for instance when forced evictions are ordered in the context of investment projects. 35 Indigenous peoples’ cultural values and rights associated with their ancestral lands are particularly at risk.36 States parties and businesses should respect the principle of free, prior and informed consent of indigenous peoples in relation to all matters that could affect their rights, including their lands, territories and resources that they have traditionally owned, occupied or otherwise used or acquired.37 13. States parties should identify any potential conflict between their obligations under the Covenant and under trade or investment treaties, and refrain from entering into such treaties where such conflicts are found to exist, 38 as required under the principle of the binding character of treaties. 39 The conclusion of such treaties should therefore be preceded by human rights impact assessments that take into account both the positive and negative human rights impacts of trade and investment treaties, including the contribution of such treaties to the realization of the right to development. Such impacts on human rights of the implementation of the agreements should be regularly assessed, to allow for the adoption of 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 4 See A/56/10 for articles on responsibility of States for internationally wrongful acts, with commentaries adopted by the International Law Commission, art. 8. See also General Assembly resolutions 56/83, 59/35, 62/61, 65/19 and 68/104. In particular, the responsibility of the State may be engaged if it fails to include labour clauses in public contracts to ensure the appropriate protection of workers employed by private contractors awarded such contracts. In this regard, States are referred to the ILO Labour Clauses (Public Contracts) Convention, 1949 (No. 94) and the ILO Labour Clauses (Public Contracts) Recommendation, 1949 (No. 84). Articles on responsibility of States for internationally wrongful acts, art. 5. Ibid., art. 9. Ibid., art. 11. See the Committee’s general comment No. 7 (1997) on forced evictions, paras. 7 and 18; and OHCHR and UN-Habitat, Forced Evictions, Fact Sheet No. 25/Rev.1, pp. 28 and 29. See also, for example, A/HRC/25/54/Add.1, paras. 55 and 59-63. See the Committee’s general comment No. 21 (2009) on the right of everyone to take part in cultural life, para. 36. See also the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, art. 26. See the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, arts. 10, 19, 28, 29 and 32. See A/HRC/19/59/Add.5. See also recommendation CM/Rec(2016)3 of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, appendix, para. 23. See the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, arts. 26 and 30 (4) (b).