A/66/265 State authorities and less able to claim their rights. Often penalization measures have a much more onerous impact on women than men, given that women are overrepresented among the poor, have less access to education, employment and economic resources, and assume the principal burden of care and domestic work. 12. A significant obstacle in breaking this cycle of penalization and poverty is the inability of persons living in poverty to access legal assistance, as they are unable to afford private legal representation and legal aid is often unavailable or inadequate. Without access to competent, comprehensive legal assistance, the poorest and most excluded are further disadvantaged in their dealings with authorities, not only when they are facing criminal charges, but also with respect to administrative procedures such as child protection cases, benefit fraud matters or eviction and immigration proceedings. 13. When persons living in poverty do not have access to legal representation or advice, particularly in circumstances where they are unfamiliar with complex legal language, they are more likely to receive and accept unfair or unequal treatment. There is a higher likelihood that they will be detrimentally affected by corruption or asked to pay bribes, will be detained for longer periods of time and, if facing trial, will be convicted. Even when legal assistance is available, discrimination and linguistic barriers are powerful obstacles in the way of those seeking access to justice and redress. III. The international human rights framework A. Equality and non-discrimination 14. Non-discrimination and equality are core elements of the international human rights normative framework.3 These principles require that those in equal circumstances be treated equally in law and practice. Under human rights law, not every distinction or difference in treatment will amount to discrimination. A distinction is compatible with the principle of equality when it has an objective and reasonable justification; it must pursue a legitimate aim, and there must be a reasonable relationship of proportionality between the means employed and the aim sought.4 Thus, differential treatment (distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference) of persons living in poverty must comply with the criteria mentioned above in order to be justified under human rights law. __________________ 3 4 6 See, for example, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, art. 2; International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, art. 2; International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, arts. 2 and 26; International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, art. 1, Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, art. 2; Convention on the Rights of the Child, art. 2; Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, art. 5. See, for example, Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, general comment No. 20; Human Rights Committee, general comment No. 18; Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, general recommendation No. 14; Marckx v. Belgium, European Court of Human Rights, Application No. 6833/74, Judgement of 13 June 1979, para. 33; Inter-American Court of Human Rights, Advisory Opinion No. 4, “Proposed amendments to the naturalization provisions of the Constitution of Costa Rica”, OC-4/84 of 19 January 1984, para. 57. 11-44449