A/HRC/11/9 page 14 48. Complaints procedures should include an appeal process that is accessible, simple, fair and effective. In order to reduce power imbalances, complaints mechanisms should provide guarantees of anonymity and they should permit both individual and collective complaints. In Argentina, Brazil and Mexico, evidence shows that both the protection of anonymity and the use of toll-free hotlines have created positive incentives and facilitated the exposure of corrupt practices and clientelism.14 Complaints mechanisms must be sufficiently resourced and culturally appropriate. 49. Under human rights standards, everyone has the right to an effective remedy when their rights have been violated. Therefore, quasi-judicial and judicial remedies must be available to the beneficiaries of CTPs. Those people that are entitled to transfers (in accordance with the national strategy plan), but who are excluded from the CTP, must have a final recourse to a judicial body. 50. Non-judicial mechanisms such as independent national human rights institutions have a role to play in empowering potential beneficiaries in their relationship with the programme’s authorities and to promote transparency. D. Ensuring meaningful and effective participation 51. International human rights law sets out a right to participation in public life (e.g. art. 25, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights).15 The participation of persons living in extreme poverty in policies and programmes that affect them, and generally in public life, is essential for the protection of the rights of the poor. Therefore beneficiaries of CTPs must have the right to participate in the design, implementation and evaluation of the programmes. 52. However, participation is not simply something desirable from the point of view of ownership and sustainability, but rather a right. It must play a role in the design and implementation of CTPs. Due to the asymmetry of power between the beneficiaries of programmes and the authorities that administer them, beneficiaries are often unable to protect their rights. Without fair and effective mechanisms that enable beneficiaries to actively participate, CTPs are vulnerable to political manipulation. 53. The absence of participation means that policymakers and programme administrators have no feedback from the people and this in turn undermines their effectiveness, their development and their sustainability. Participation also contributes to ensuring social cohesion and political support for CTPs. 54. Often, when participatory strategies are put in place, they are not meaningful because participation is pro forma or reduced to mere consultation, which does not actually enable the beneficiaries to have any real impact on decisions. Frequently, participation processes are 14 See Christian Gruenberg,Victoria Pereyra, “Manual de estudios de caso: Transparencia, participación, y rendición de cuentas en programas sociales focalizados”, Fundación Tinker, Chile, 2009. 15 See Human Rights Committee, general comment No. 25.