A/67/278 protect them, but rather undermines their rights and autonomy, or seeks to control, criminalize and segregate them. Legislators often do not recognize and estimate the issues that negatively affect persons living in poverty as serious and in need of active remedy. 29. For example, in many legal systems, economic, social and cultural rights are not sufficiently protected, and discrimination on the grounds of socioeconomic situation is not recognized. Similarly, issues such as abuses in the informal employment sector or the exploitation of tenants by landlords, all of which disproportionately affect persons living in poverty, are often not legislated against in an effective manner. Meanwhile, actions which are undertaken by persons living in poverty out of necessity, such as sleeping in public spaces or street vending, are criminalized. Hence, reforms aimed at improving access to justice by the poor must not neglect the need to modify or repeal certain laws or strengthen others. 30. Women living in poverty suffer compounded obstacles to accessing justice generated by inadequate legal frameworks and normative protection, because the deprivations and abuse that women suffer as women are often not recognized in law. Many States lack legal and constitutional frameworks that guarantee women the enjoyment of their rights, such as anti-discrimination laws. Issues such as domestic violence, sexual violence, reproductive rights, and equal pay and inheritance rights are not adequately addressed in many legal regimes, thus curtailing any possibility of seeking remedies. This has a particularly devastating impact on poor women, who are often left without any formal or informal recourse. Lack of judicial review for social policies 31. Often, there is no mechanism in place to review social policies or administrative decisions that have a major impact on the enjoyment of their rights by persons living in poverty. The lack of remedies for the negative impacts of social policy in the areas of health, housing, education and social security, or for administrative decisions relating to welfare benefits or asylum proceedings, often results in inability to seek redress in cases of violations of key human rights, such as the right to equality and non-discrimination and the right to social security. This is a major obstacle to accessing justice for persons living in poverty, who are disproportionately affected by those policies. 32. The lack of judicial review or complaints mechanisms for social policy, compounded by a lack of justiciability of economic, social and cultural rights at the domestic level, creates the perception that social policy is a charitable measure rather than part of an obligation to ensure the enjoyment of human rights. The recognition of rights imposes the obligation to establish judicial or other remedies that enable rights holders to invoke their protection in courts, or before other similarly independent bodies, when they are infringed. The lack of adequate and effective remedies for violations of economic, social and cultural rights is thus an infringement of international human rights instruments. Lack of legal identity 33. The right to be recognized as a person before the law is a fundamental human right (International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, art. 16, and Convention on the Rights of the Child, art. 7), and is at the core of the right to access justice. Many persons living in poverty are de facto deprived of accessing courts and other 12-45806 9