A/HRC/53/39 adopting systematic gender-responsive budgeting and financial processes which would allow Governments to reclaim space for the development of feminist and human rights-based economic policies.99 Equitable and transparent trade and investment systems 54. The extent to which trade liberalization has contributed to deepening sex- and genderrelated inequalities and poverty is still unclear. There are some attempts being made within global and regional trade regimes to bring a “gender lens” to poverty and inequality. However, it is apparent that these processes need to do more than address women in their roles as entrepreneurs and small-business owners and instead take a more critical approach to analysing the human rights impacts of trade and investment agreements and disaggregate them by sex and gender and other axes of discrimination.100 55. Many recent regional trade and investment agreements contain preambular commitments to gender equality and to improving the situation of women living in poverty, and in some cases specific chapters on gender equality; however, due to a lack of data, it is not known whether these commitments have resulted in material improvements in women’s lives.101 Regional trade integration has led to more employment opportunities for women in Africa, Asia and Latin America, but many of the jobs that have been created are poorly remunerated and precarious and do not provide scope for women to develop empowering careers.102 Gender equality provisions often do not cover e-commerce and digital trade or trade in special economic zones, and do not include accountability and dispute-settlement mechanisms for violation of such provisions. Reparations for climate change and other racial and social inequalities 56. Climate reparations are being discussed as part of the feminist Global Green New Deal that would attribute responsibility and define payments to be made by colonial powers for historical and ongoing extraction and contributions to global emissions. 103 Funds established through these processes could be used to develop innovative and inclusive social and environmental policies. More generally, reparations should follow the human rights standards of providing restitution, compensation, satisfaction, rehabilitation and guarantees of non-repetition,104 and be gender-transformative, in line with international human rights law.105 Corporate accountability 57. While Governments are the primary holders of obligations to ensure that all human rights are respected, protected and fulfilled, corporate actors also have responsibilities to respect and protect human rights and to provide adequate remedies for human rights harms that arise from their activities.106 Businesses have a key role to play in reducing poverty and inequalities globally and nationally, by upholding standards on human rights, environmental 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 16 Ilene Grabel, “Global financial governance and progressive feminist agendas”, International Journal of Political Economy, vol. 51, No. 4 (2022), pp. 331–345; and IMF, “IMF strategy toward mainstreaming gender” (2022). Views expressed during consultations. UNCTAD, “Making trade agreements work for gender equality: data and statistics”, Policy Brief, No. 81 (2020). UNCTAD, “Looking at the trade and gender nexus from a development perspective: a brief overview” (2022). Feminist Economic Justice for People and Planet Action Nexus, “A feminist and decolonial Global Green New Deal”. Basic Principles and Guidelines on the Right to a Remedy and Reparation for Victims of Gross Violations of International Human Rights Law and Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law. See Ruth Rubio-Marin, “The gender of reparations in transitional societies”, in The Gender of Reparations: Unsettling Sexual Hierarchies while Redressing Human Rights Violations, Ruth RubioMarin, ed. (New York, Cambridge University Press, 2009). See A/HRC/8/5. GE.23-06173