A/73/207 framework against the background of other human rights norms, such as those developed to eliminate racial discrimination and discrimination and violence against women, and those designed to protect the rights of children and pers ons with disabilities. 17 (b) Socioeconomic marginalization 65. Socioeconomic marginalization is an important factor exposing persons to abuse by States and non-State actors. Torture, ill-treatment, arbitrary detention and inhuman or degrading conditions of detention are most likely to be inflicted on persons belonging to the poorest and most disadvantaged sectors of society. Persons living in poverty and those experiencing homelessness or living in illegal settlements often lack access to basic necessities and public services, such as water, food, hygiene and health care, and are legally or de facto disenfranchised. Such marginalization and disempowerment foster the irregular generation of income for life sustenance, often through petty criminality. At the same time, tough penal policies and excessive recourse to incarceration give rise to a vicious cycle of violence and incarceration that expose the most marginalized to an almost inescapable downward spiral of brutalization. Socioeconomically marginalized persons are also most likely to be “scapegoated” by State officials, including by being coerced into confessing to crimes they have not committed, or abused by organized criminals and other non-State actors. Police are often slow to protect the poor against such violence, or may even demand “protection money” in return. To make matters worse, the stigma and marginalization faced by those in poverty often mean that their complaints of ill -treatment are taken less seriously (A/72/502, paras. 9–12, and A/HRC/28/68/Add.3). (c) Persons deprived of their liberty 66. Places of detention are particularly disempowering environments that combine power asymmetry, stigmatization and discrimination with other forms of vulnerability. Persons deprived of their liberty are often wrongly seen as outcasts not deserving of sympathy, resources or protection, which leaves them exposed to a heightened risk of torture and ill-treatment (A/HRC/13/39/Add.5, paras. 237 and 257). Those risks are greatest during apprehension and the early stages of custody, in incommunicado detention and, more generally, under policies of over-incarceration (A/71/298, paras. 8 and 45). The risks and marginalization associated with detention are further exacerbated in the case of persons with particular vulnerabilities. (d) Health-care settings 67. Health-care settings are an example of a particular context in which substantial and complex risks of torture and ill-treatment materialize in interaction with other characteristics and structural or situational factors. It has been observed that, with regard to ensuring free and informed consent to health-care treatment, the power imbalance between doctors and patients, exacerbated by stigma and discrimination, results in individuals from certain groups of patients being disproportionately vulnerable to having informed consent compromised. The risk is particularly high in the context of forced institutionalization and treatment of persons with psychosocial disabilities, who are often stripped of their legal capacity and not, or only inadequately, involved in decisions taken with regard to their treatment (A/HRC/22/53). __________________ 17 18/23 Committee against Torture, general comment No. 2 (para. 21). 18-12051