E/C.12/GC/24 cooperate with one another in order to promote information-sharing and transparency and prevent the denial of justice. 46. States parties should ensure that indigenous peoples have access to effective remedies, both judicial and non-judicial, for all infringements of their individual and collective rights. These remedies should be sensitive to indigenous cultures and accessible to indigenous peoples.97 47. The Committee recalls that all government branches and agencies of States parties, including the judiciary and law enforcement agencies, are bound by the obligations under the Covenant. States parties should ensure that the judiciary, in particular judges and lawyers, are well informed of the obligations under the Covenant linked to business activities, and that they can exercise their functions in complete independence. 48. Finally, the Committee draws the attention of States parties to the challenges facing human rights defenders.98 The Committee has regularly come across accounts of threats and attacks aimed at those seeking to protect their own or others’ Covenant rights, particularly in the context of extractive and development projects. 99 In addition, trade union leaders, leaders of peasant movements, indigenous leaders and anti-corruption activists are often subject to the risk of harassment. States parties should take all measures necessary to protect human rights advocates and their work. They should refrain from resorting to criminal prosecution to hinder their work, or from otherwise obstructing their work. B. Types of remedies 49. Ensuring corporate accountability for violations of Covenant rights requires reliance on various tools. The most serious violations of the Covenant should give rise to criminal liability of corporations and/or of the individuals responsible. Prosecuting authorities may have to be made aware of their role in upholding Covenant rights. Victims of violations of Covenant rights should have access to reparations where Covenant rights are at stake and whether or not criminal liability is engaged.100 50. States parties should also consider the use of administrative sanctions to discourage conduct by business entities that leads, or may lead, to violations of the rights under the Covenant. For instance, in their public procurement regimes, States could deny the awarding of public contracts to companies that have not provided information on the social or environmental impacts of their activities or that have not put in place measures to ensure that they act with due diligence to avoid or mitigate any negative impacts on the rights under the Covenant. Access to export credit and other forms of State support may also be denied in such circumstances, and in transnational contexts, investment treaties may deny protection to foreign investors of the other party that have engaged in conduct leading to a violation of Covenant rights.101 97 98 99 100 101 14 See A/68/279, paras. 50-53; and A Business Reference Guide: United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, p. 81. See E/C.12/2016/2 for the Committee’s statement on human rights defenders and economic, social and cultural rights. See also Human Rights Council resolution 31/32; and General Assembly resolution 53/144, for the Declaration on the Right and Responsibility of Individuals, Groups and Organs of Society to Promote and Protect Universally Recognized Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. See, for example, E/C.12/VNM/CO/2-4, para. 11; E/C.12/1/Add.44, para. 19; E/C.12/IND/CO/5, paras. 12 and 50; E/C.12/PHL/CO/4, para. 15; E/C.12/COD/CO/4, para. 12; E/C.12/LKA/CO/2-4, para. 10; and E/C.12/IDN/CO/1, para. 28. See A/HRC/32/19, annex, for the guidance to improve corporate accountability and access to judicial remedy for business-related human rights abuse (see, in particular, policy objectives 4-8 of the guidance), as well as the Corporate Crimes Principles, developed in October 2016 by the Independent Commission of Experts established by the International Corporate Accountability Roundtable and Amnesty International. See, for example, International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes case No. ARB/07/26, Urbaser S.A. and others v. Argentina (award of 8 December 2016), paras. 1194 and 1195.