A/HRC/41/49 and human rights among parts of the legal profession, but that further efforts were needed. It was observed that the increasing number of participants from corporate law firms attending the Forum might be a reflection of growing client demand for lawyers to understand and provide advice addressing the risks of failing to manage and mitigate the full breadth of relevant human rights risks to which a client may be exposed. V. Issues in focus 66. The Forum programme included a series of sessions focused on issues that have become “standing items”, or that had been identified by the Working Group as emerging or systemic issues that confront the business and human rights agenda. A. Groups at risk 67. The Forum programme included various sessions to address challenges faced by individuals and groups that may be at heightened risk of becoming vulnerable or marginalized, as well as practices that have proved to work efficiently. 68. At a panel devoted specifically to children’s rights, participants explored different methods of conducting human rights due diligence with consideration of children’s rights and voices as well as the role of different stakeholders in making this happen, including investors, Governments, companies and United Nations agencies. It was highlighted during the discussions that few companies took a specifically child-centred approach and that even where methodologies did exist, they did not go very far beyond addressing child labour, focusing largely on remediation rather than preventive measures. For the first time, the Forum also saw the participation of a child, a former child labourer who shared the challenges that he faced and that other children and adolescents who begin working at a very early age encounter while trying to access education, and highlighting the importance of the need for collective action on the part of all actors in ensuring that children enjoyed all their rights. 69. The Forum included a session organized to help inform a Working Group project to unpack implications for integrating gender considerations in implementing the Guiding Principles. The project would produce recommendations to States and business, and would be presented in a report to the Human Rights Council in 2019 (A/HRC/41/43).16 Discussions revolved around five aspects of the question: sexual harassment and sexual violence against women; gender-sensitive human rights due diligence; economic inclusion and empowerment of women; the impact of trade, investment and tax regimes on women; and women’s experiences of accessing effective remedies and defending rights. Participants called for recognition by States and businesses of the often disproportionate and adverse impacts on women of trade and investment policies and of business strategies and operations. Participants examined the implementation of a gender-sensitive approach in human rights due diligence and as part of good business practice more broadly, including in providing effective remedies through company grievance mechanisms. 70. The Forum programme also included a session focusing on migrant workers, highlighting the vulnerability of this group to exploitation, human trafficking and modern slavery at all stages of the employment cycle, from recruitment to employment and termination. Discussants agreed on the need to create guidelines for companies and establish adequate tools to allow access to effective remedy. Examples of different initiatives were presented, including the work initiated by the International Trade Union Confederation, working together with ILO and the Government of Qatar towards the implementation of reforms to the kafala (sponsorship) system, allowing workers to have access to a committee in case of human rights abuses. 71. Over 200 of the world’s largest companies have publicly expressed support for the Standards of Conduct for Business with regard to discrimination against lesbian, gay, 16 16 See www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Business/Pages/GenderLens.aspx.