E/C.12/GC/24 including by enforcing progressive taxation schemes. It may require seeking business cooperation and support to implement the Covenant rights and comply with other human rights standards and principles. 24. This obligation also requires directing the efforts of business entities towards the fulfilment of Covenant rights. In designing a framework on intellectual property rights, for instance, that is consistent with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and with the right to enjoy the benefits of scientific progress stipulated in article 15 of the Covenant, States parties should ensure that intellectual property rights do not lead to denial or restriction of everyone’s access to essential medicines necessary for the enjoyment of the right to health,61 or to productive resources such as seeds, access to which is crucial to the right to food and to farmers’ rights.62 States parties should also recognize and protect the right of indigenous peoples to control the intellectual property over their cultural heritage, traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions. 63 In supporting research and development for new products and services, States parties should aim at the fulfilment of Covenant rights, for instance by supporting the development of universally designed goods, services, equipment and facilities, to advance the inclusion of persons with disabilities. C. Extraterritorial obligations 25. The past thirty years have witnessed a significant increase of activities of transnational corporations, growing investment and trade flows between countries, and the emergence of global supply chains. In addition, major development projects have increasingly involved private investments, often in the form of public-private partnerships between State agencies and foreign private investors. These developments give particular significance to the question of extraterritorial human rights obligations of States. 26. In its 2011 statement on the obligations of States parties regarding the corporate sector and economic, social and cultural rights, the Committee reiterated that States parties’ obligations under the Covenant did not stop at their territorial borders. States parties were required to take the steps necessary to prevent human rights violations abroad by corporations domiciled in their territory and/or jurisdiction (whether they were incorporated under their laws, or had their statutory seat, central administration or principal place of business on the national territory), without infringing the sovereignty or diminishing the obligations of the host States under the Covenant. 64 The Committee has also addressed specific extraterritorial obligations of States parties concerning business activities in its previous general comments relating to the right to water, 65 the right to work,66 the right to social security,67 and the right to just and favourable conditions of work, 68 as well as in its examination of States’ periodic reports. 27. Such extraterritorial obligations of States under the Covenant follow from the fact that the obligations of the Covenant are expressed without any restriction linked to territory or jurisdiction. Although article 14 of the Covenant does refer to compulsory primary education having to be provided by a State “in its metropolitan territory or other territories under its jurisdiction”, such a reference is absent from the other provisions of the Covenant. Moreover, article 2 (1) refers to international assistance and cooperation as a means of fulfilling economic, social and cultural rights. It would be contradictory to such a reference to allow a State to remain passive where an actor domiciled in its territory and/or under its 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 8 See also A/HRC/23/42, para. 3 (recognizing the obligation to provide essential medicines as an immediate obligation for all States parties). See A/64/170, paras. 5 and 7; and the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (resolution 3/2001, adopted on 3 November 2001, FAO Conference, thirty-first session), art. 9. See the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, arts. 24 and 31; and the Committee’s general comment No. 21, para. 37. See E/C.12/2011/1, paras. 5 and 6. See the Committee’s general comment No. 15, paras. 31 and 33. See the Committee’s general comment No. 18, para. 52. See the Committee’s general comment No. 19, para. 54. See the Committee’s general comment No. 23, para. 70.