E/C.12/GC/26 communities shall be properly informed about and allowed to meaningfully participate in decision-making processes that may affect their enjoyment of rights under the Covenant in land-related contexts, without retaliation. 29 Equal access to sufficient and transparent information for all parties involved in decision-making is key for human rights-based participation in decision-making. States parties should develop relevant laws, policies and procedures to ensure transparency, participation and consultation in relation to decisionmaking affecting land, including in relation to land registration, land administration and land transfers, as well as prior to evictions from land. Decision-making processes should be transparent, organized in the relevant languages, without barriers and with reasonable accommodation for all involved. 21. Decision-making processes should be widely publicized and include procedures to grant access to all relevant documents. Affected persons need to be contacted prior to any decision that might affect their rights under the Covenant. The international legal standard for Indigenous Peoples is that of free, prior and informed consent,30 which needs to be a process of dialogue and negotiation where consent is the objective. Indigenous Peoples shall not only be involved in decision-making processes, but shall also be able to actively influence their outcome. Consent is required for relocation, as stated in article 10 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The right to participate is meaningful only when its use does not entail any form of retaliation. C. Specific obligations of States parties 1. Obligation to respect 22. The obligation to respect requires that States parties do not interfere directly or indirectly with the rights enshrined in the Covenant relating to land, including the access to, use of and control over land. The obligation to respect means not doing any of the following: (a) interfering with land users’ legitimate tenure rights,31 in particular by evicting occupants from land on which they depend for their livelihoods; (b) evicting by force and demolishing property as punitive measures; (c) committing any discriminatory acts in the process of land registration and land administration, including on the basis of marital status, legal capacity or access to economic resources; or (d) committing any act of corruption with regard to tenure administration and tenure transfers. The obligation to respect also entails respecting existing access to land of all legitimate tenure holders and respecting decisions of concerned communities to manage their lands according to internal modes of organization. States should provide all persons with a reasonable degree of tenure security that guarantees legal protection against forced evictions. More generally, the Covenant imposes on States a duty to abstain from interfering with land users’ legitimate tenure rights, particularly by not evicting occupants from the land on which they depend for their livelihoods. Forced evictions are prima facie incompatible with the requirements of the Covenant. 32 The relevant authorities shall ensure that evictions are only carried out in accordance with legislation that is compatible and in conformity with the Covenant and in accordance with the general principles of reasonableness and proportionality between the 23. 29 30 31 32 GE.23-00043 Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, general comment No. 16 (2005), para. 37, and general comment No. 21 (2009), para. 16 (c). See also African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, “State reporting guidelines and principles on articles 21 and 24 of the African Charter relating to extractive industries, human rights and the environment” (Niamey, 2017), pp. 26–27; and Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security, para. 3B (6). Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security, para. 9.9. The term “legitimate tenure right holder” was developed during the negotiations of the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security in 2012 in order to clarify the fact that legitimate tenure right holders include not only those with formal land titles, but also those with customary, collective or traditional tenure rights that might not be recognized by law. Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, general comment No. 7 (1997), para. 1. 7