A/68/264 the impact of downstream water pollution found that the benefits of treating domestic and industrial wastewater offset the costs by a factor of 2:3. 47 D. Strengthening transparency, accountability and compliance with human rights 71. Transparency and accountability are among the key principles of human rights. Impact assessments can serve to strengthen compliance with human rights, while accountability mechanisms are crucial for providing redress. Improving data lays the ground for better planning and monitoring. 1. Ensuring participation 72. While environmental impact assessments are carried out for certain projects, assessments that include evaluation of the impact on human rights are not undertaken as regularly. Moreover, there are many projects for which assessments are not yet commonplace, or when they are undertaken, lack transparency and community involvement with the excuse that the information is confidential. 73. When States plan projects for wastewater management or projects that may have an impact on water quality, they need to carry out impact assessments in line with human rights standards and principles. While the Special Rapporteur welcomes the fact that companies undertake impact assessments of their projects, she also sees challenges when the findings are not publicly accessible. Moreover, Government institutions need to be able to not only access such studies, but also to analyse and assess them independently, or carry out their own assessments, as the basis for determining whether licences for a given project will be granted. This requires capacity in terms of human, technical and financial resources and expert knowledge (see A/HRC/21/42/Add.2, para. 22). 74. A human rights impact assessment can be integrated within existing environmental or social impact assessments. Such assessments should be carried out both, ex-ante and ex-post, to ensure the prevention of negative impact and monitoring throughout the process. Assessments must be based on human rights standards and follow human rights principles in the process of conducting them as previously spelled out by the Special Rapporteur (see A/HRC/15/31, para. 45). 2. Providing accountability mechanisms 75. The human rights framework obliges States to put in place mechanisms to hold the relevant actors accountable. They must provide for redress mechanisms in the law and address barriers that may prevent access to justice in practice, including through measures to overcome obstacles such as prohibitive costs, language requirements, requirements of representation and geographic location of institutions. Members of the legal profession must be adequately trained in human rights law, including economic, social and cultural rights, non-discrimination law, and environmental law. __________________ 47 13-41825 “Downstream Impacts of Water Pollution in the Upper Citarum River” (West Java, Indonesia, 2011). 19/23