The State’s duties in this regard are further developed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and successive human rights instruments, and relevantly entail: • taking active measures to ensure the full enjoyment of rights, such as through the passage of laws and regulations, and the adoption of policies and practices to promote human rights compliance, and • Providing mechanism through which violations may be remedied. Such broad obligations can be found in Article 2 of each of the ICCPR, ICESCR and CRC, as well as Article 3 of CEDAW. These instruments also provide more specific obligations, requiring the State to prohibit discrimination by organisations or enterprises on the basis of race, gender and disability, and in specific areas such as access to public facilities and in the provision of goods and services. Other international instruments also impose obligations on the state to address acts that may impact on the realisation of human rights. Of particular relevance to the activities of TNCs is Article 26 of the United Nations Convention against Corruption, which requires each State Party to adopt provisions to establish the liability of legal persons, and to subject them to effective, proportionate and dissuasive criminal or non-criminal sanctions. The obligation on the State to protect against violations by non-State actors is further reflected in commentaries and concluding observations from United Nations treaty bodies. The UN Human Rights Committee has referred to a positive obligation on States parties to ensure the observance of human rights by third parties, and indicated that the obligation will only be fully discharged if the State protects individuals from violations by the State and its agents, as well as from private persons or entities.8 Commentaries also refer specifically to the obligation to regulate the acts of business enterprises in areas such as the right to work, the right to health, and the right to water. 9 Within the Asia Pacific region, the ACJ notes in particular the existence of sub-regional instruments in the Middle East and South East Asia referring broadly to obligations to protect and promote human rights Specific Obligations with regard to known threats In certain circumstances the obligation to act may require additional action by the State, particularly where the State knew or ought to have known of a real and immediate threat to the life of an identified individual. 10 Obligations to Provide Remedies As is indicated above, the obligation to provide remedies arises in various international human rights and related instruments. 8 UNHRC, General Comment 31. On the obligation to legislate with regard to private actors, the UNHRC has commented that “. . . a State party does not only have an obligation to protect individuals against violations by Government officials but also by private parties. It thus notes with deep concern the absence of legislation providing effective protection against violations of Covenant rights by non-governmental actors. Comments on United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (Hong Kong), Human Rights Committee, [10], UN Doc CCPR/C/79/Add.57 (1995). 9 General Comment 18, ‘The Right to Work’, UN Doc. E/C.12/GC/18, adopted 24 November 2005 at para. 35.; General Comment 15, ‘The Right to Water (Arts. 11 and 12)’, adopted 26 November 2002, at para 23, UN Human Rights Compilation at 106; and General Comment 14, ‘The Right to the Highest Attainable Standard of Health (Art. 12)’, adopted 11 August 2000, at para. 35, UN Human Rights. 10 The decision of the UNHRC in Delgado Páez v Colombia, (Human Rights Committee, Communication No 195/1985, 39th session, UN Doc CCPR/C/39/D/195/1985 (1990)), dealt with the extent of the State’s obligation to protect citizens against violations of the right to life by private parties. In this case: the individual had received death threats and faced persecution as a result of his liberal views on theological and social issues. The UNHRC considered the matter under art 9, security of the person, and held: States Parties have undertaken to guarantee the rights enshrined in the Covenant. It cannot be the case that, as a matter of law, States can ignore known threats to the life of persons under their jurisdiction . . . States parties are unde r an obligation to take reasonable and appropriate measures to protect them. -8-