A/68/294 Accountability of Governments, along with monitoring mechanisms 126. Accountability should be a cornerstone of the post-2015 development agenda, with emphasis on mechanisms to hold Governments accountable to their commitments. Existing legal obligations must be operationalized in goals and targets along with the development of national action plans and programmes with benchmarks for the progressive realization of the right to education. 127. Indicators are crucial in addressing the accountability gap, and can demonstrate the extent to which Government obligations and commitments are fulfilled. Enforcement mechanisms linked to Government accountability 128. A defining feature of a human rights-based approach to development is characterized by accountability. A rights-based approach presupposes that the rights are legally defined and are enforceable. It is therefore important that post-2015 education goals and targets be made enforceable in a national context. 129. The rights-holders should have the ability to challenge Governments to meet their international obligations when they are not being respected and fulfilled. Access to justice is of foremost importance for getting the rights enforced. The right to education is a justiciable right, and that should be recognized in the future agenda. Governments should, therefore, work towards making their commitments justiciable in their national legal systems, recognizing that they are all founded in international law. 130. Accordingly, effective enforcement mechanisms linked to Government accountability should be foreseen in the future agenda. The agenda should contain provisions enabling individuals and groups to claim their right to education as an entitlement in the case of violation or lack of its fulfilment. In this respect, the special role of ombudspersons and national human rights institutions and public human rights defenders should be recognized. Protecting social interest in education and preserving education as a public good 131. Education should be central to the notion and concepts of global public goods and intellectual commons, which are increasingly being discussed in international forums. Education benefits both the individual and the society and social interest in education must be protected with regard to its mercantilization, geared towards commercial gains only. Education should be preserved as a public good and not be allowed to be reduced to a mere business. United Nations system-wide coordinated approaches 132. Measures at the national level for the implementation of education goal in the post-2015 agenda can be boosted by its integration with the work of the United Nations human rights treaty bodies as well as of the Human Rights Council, which periodically assess and make recommendations regarding the fulfilment, inter alia, of the right to education. While submitting their reports to the United Nations human rights treaty bodies or to the Human Rights 13-42277 25/26