A/HRC/21/39 38. States must ensure the active, free, informed and meaningful participation of persons living in poverty at all stages of the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of decisions and policies affecting them. This requires capacity-building and human rights education for persons living in poverty, and the establishment of specific mechanisms and institutional arrangements, at various levels of decision-making, to overcome the obstacles that such persons face in terms of effective participation. Particular care should be taken to fully include the poorest and most socially excluded persons. 39. States must ensure that groups at higher risk of falling into poverty, including those who commonly experience disadvantage and discrimination based on race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status, are not only adequately represented in all decision-making processes that affect them but also empowered and supported to express their views. 40. States must ensure that indigenous peoples, who are particularly susceptible to extreme poverty, enjoy the right to free, prior and informed consent through their own representative institutions regarding all decisions concerning the use of their lands, territories and resources by State and non-State actors. 41. States must also actively protect individuals, community-based organizations, social movements, groups and other non-governmental organizations that support and advocate the rights of those living in poverty. G. Transparency and access to information 42. Persons living in poverty often lack access to crucial information about decisions affecting their lives. This reduces their net income, obstructs their access to social services or job opportunities and exposes them disproportionately to corruption and exploitation. 43. States must ensure that public services and programmes affecting persons living in poverty are designed and implemented transparently. States must provide accessible and culturally adequate information about all public services available to persons living in poverty and about their rights regarding these services. This information should be actively disseminated through all available channels. 44. States must ensure that persons living in poverty enjoy the right, individually and in association with others, to seek, receive and impart information about all decisions affecting their lives. This includes access to information as to how rights and freedoms can be enforced and violations remedied. H. Accountability 45. Persons living in poverty are often seen as passive recipients of Government aid or charity when, in fact, they are rights holders with entitlements to whom policymakers and other public officials must be accountable. 46. States must ensure that persons living in poverty enjoy the right to an effective remedy through judicial, quasi-judicial, administrative and political mechanisms in the event of actions and omissions that undermine or jeopardize their human rights, including in public service delivery, poverty reduction programmes and resource allocation. Persons living in poverty should be fully informed about the remedies available to them, and mechanisms should be physically and financially accessible to all. 9