E/C.12/GC/24 any corrective measures that may be required. The interpretation of trade and investment treaties currently in force should take into account the human rights obligations of the State, consistent with Article 103 of the Charter of the United Nations and with the specific nature of human rights obligations.40 States parties cannot derogate from the obligations under the Covenant in trade and investment treaties that they may conclude. They are encouraged to insert, in future treaties, a provision explicitly referring to their human rights obligations, and to ensure that mechanisms for the settlement of investor-State disputes take human rights into account in the interpretation of investment treaties or of investment chapters in trade agreements. 2. Obligation to protect 14. The obligation to protect means that States parties must prevent effectively infringements of economic, social and cultural rights in the context of business activities. This requires that States parties adopt legislative, administrative, educational and other appropriate measures, to ensure effective protection against Covenant rights violations linked to business activities, and that they provide victims of such corporate abuses with access to effective remedies. 15. States parties should consider imposing criminal or administrative sanctions and penalties, as appropriate, where business activities result in abuses of Covenant rights or where a failure to act with due diligence to mitigate risks allows such infringements to occur; enable civil suits and other effective means of claiming reparations by victims of rights violations against corporate perpetrators, in particular by lowering the costs to victims and by allowing forms of collective redress; revoke business licences and subsidies, if and to the extent necessary, from offenders; and revise relevant tax codes, public procurement contracts, 41 export credits and other forms of State support, privileges and advantages in case of human rights violations, thus aligning business incentives with human rights responsibilities. States parties should regularly review the adequacy of laws and identify and address compliance and information gaps, as well as emerging problems. 42 16. The obligation to protect entails a positive duty to adopt a legal framework requiring business entities to exercise human rights due diligence in order to identify, prevent and mitigate the risks of violations of Covenant rights, to avoid such rights being abused, and to account for the negative impacts caused or contributed to by their decisions and operations and those of entities they control on the enjoyment of Covenant rights. 43 States should adopt measures such as imposing due diligence requirements to prevent abuses of Covenant rights in a business entity’s supply chain and by subcontractors, suppliers, franchisees, or other business partners. 17. States parties should ensure that, where appropriate, the impacts of business activities on indigenous peoples specifically (in particular, actual or potential adverse impacts on indigenous peoples’ rights to land, resources, territories, cultural heritage, traditional knowledge and culture) are incorporated into human rights impact assessments. 44 In exercising human rights due diligence, businesses should consult and cooperate in good faith with the indigenous peoples concerned through indigenous peoples’ own representative institutions in order to obtain their free, prior and informed consent before 40 41 42 43 44 Inter-American Court of Human Rights, Sawhoyamaxa Indigenous Community v. Paraguay (judgment of 29 March 2006, Series C No. 146), para. 140. See the conclusions attached to the resolution concerning decent work in global supply chains, adopted by the General Conference of the International Labour Organization at its 105th session, para. 16 (c). Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, principle 17 (c). See A/HRC/32/19.Add.1, para. 5, for the model terms of reference for a review of the coverage and effectiveness of laws relevant to business-related human rights abuses; and A/HRC/32/19, annex, for the guidance to improve corporate accountability and access to judicial remedy for business-related human rights abuse. See also Human Rights Council resolution 32/10. Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, principles 15 and 17. See A/68/279, para. 31; A Business Reference Guide: United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, p. 15; A/HRC/33/42; and A/66/288, paras. 92-102. 5