respect to access to and use of land, fauna and flora, the state should, at the minimum, ensure that its agents or any third party does not interfere with the right of communities and individuals to access and use these resources. Most notably, this protection extends against activities of extractive industries or other commercial activities that not only impede local peoples’ access to and use of the land, fauna and flora in the territories they live on, but also contravene other rights of the Africa Charter, such as the right to the best attainable state of health under Article 16, which may be affected by activities polluting the air. 15. Another substantive right that gives enforcement to both the positive rights guarantees and the negative protections that arise from Article 21 (1) is the right to remedy in case of violations. Understandably, the right to remedy is inherent in and central to all human rights and is also embedded in the right to access to justice. Additionally, this right to remedy includes reparations. Indeed, Article 21(2) stipulates that the reparation in ‘case of spoliation’ for the ‘dispossessed people’ takes the form of restitution or compensation. Any dispossession of land shall be on the basis of law and undertaken solely in the public interest and should be reasonable and proportionate. Peoples affected by land dispossession should be provided both with full, effective, fair and adequate compensation and support for rehabilitation. Such compensation has to be made available prior to the removal of such peoples from their land and has to be determined in consultation with the affected people and should not in any way make their living conditions worse off. Compensation should also take account of the additional vulnerability of certain groups, such as female-headed households. 16. One qualification to the right of people to freely dispose of their wealth and natural resources is international cooperation. Most specifically, the exercise of this right should not prejudice obligations arising from international cooperation, including those obligations arising from agreements relating to trans-boundary resources. The most notable implication of this is that the disposal or extraction of natural resources should have a developmental purpose and should be environmentally sustainable. The obligations arising from such international trade or investment agreements and/or bilateral investment agreements will not be acceptable under Article 21(3) unless they are based on ‘mutual respect, equitable exchange and principles of international law’. Additionally, obligations arising from such agreements 24 |  African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights