A/HRC/27/55 77. Violations of the human rights to water and sanitation are often complex and interrelated. For instance, victims of violations of the obligations to respect rights, such as those living in informal settlements, are often in precarious situations caused by violations of the obligation to fulfil rights. Many violations can be traced to unequal power relationships and systemically entrenched patterns of discrimination. 78. Given this context, the notion of restorative remedies for violations, whereby the status quo ante is restored, may fall short of addressing the underlying violations at the structural or systemic level. Consequently, transformative remedies, which aim not only to correct direct violations but also the underlying structural conditions, are required in order to provide comprehensive remedies to structural and systemic violations. Examples of such transformative remedies are participatory structural injunctions that require the State to adopt a plan to correct a structural violation with the meaningful participation of beneficiaries and report back to the court on progress made. This allows courts to supervise progress and make ancillary orders to ensure that both the process and outcomes are consistent with the rights to water and sanitation. As such, transformative remedies can move claimants further towards the full enjoyment of human rights. 94 Without such remedies, there is a risk that access to justice will be limited to those people who are in a position to seek remedies for themselves and will preclude claims in the public interest. States may need to ensure that their constitutional and legislative frameworks clearly give their judicial systems the responsibility to provide systemic remedies and to accept complaints in the public interest. 79. The Special Rapporteur has observed that it is too often forgotten that the defining role and purpose of courts and others involved in adjudicating human rights claims is to ensure that rights holders are afforded the full benefit of rights. If few or no claims are being heard addressing the most critical, wide-ranging and complex violations of the rights to water and sanitation, then this suggests that the justice system must be transformed. Many judicial systems give preference to claims based on negative obligations over those based on positive obligations, claims to immediately enforceable remedies over longer-term transformative ones, and claims affecting individuals or small groups over claims that require systemic changes. This preference can no longer be permitted to deny victims of human rights violations the remedies to which they are entitled. The consequences of denying access to justice for the most egregious violations are too severe to be contemplated. Courts, human rights institutions, governments and advocates must redefine justice and the role of courts in relation to what human rights require and ensure access to effective remedies. V. Conclusions and recommendations 80. The Special Rapporteur is encouraged to see advances in identifying, preventing and remedying violations of the human rights to water and sanitation. Nevertheless, the extent of continuing violations constitutes a major human rights crisis. It is imperative for States to implement review and adjudication procedures to identify violations, with the full participation of stakeholders, and to prioritize action to address violations. The Special Rapporteur has found that, while more attention needs to be paid to violations of the rights to water and sanitation in general, progress has not been equal across the full range of obligations or for all groups of rights holders. Access to justice for violations at a more structural or systemic level, 94 22 Sandy Liebenberg, Socio-economic rights: adjudication under a transformative constitution (Juta, 2010), pp. 424–438.