A/HRC/29/28 3. Sustainable stock exchanges 50. The Sustainable Stock Exchanges Initiative is yet another area of finance where explicit alignment with the Guiding Principles could add value. The Initiative, which is coconvened by the United Nations-supported Principles for Responsible Investment, UNCTAD, the UNEP Finance Initiative and the Global Compact, is a peer-to-peer learning platform for exploring how exchanges, in collaboration with investors, regulators and companies, can enhance corporate transparency—and ultimately performance—on environmental, social and corporate governance issues and encourage sustainable investment. The Guiding Principles could offer normative and operational guidance, for example on matters concerning portfolio investors (e.g. pension funds) and their human rights-related responsibilities in relation to investee companies, where the Guiding Principles provide benchmarks on standards for due diligence and corporate governance. IV. Sustainable development 51. The growing role of business in economic and social development has underscored the need for stronger accountability systems in emerging development frameworks. Two main aspects are worth underlining. First, as part of their duty to protect, States must protect internationally recognized human rights, and the Guiding Principles provide an additional framework for States to ensure that businesses do not undermine development efforts. 52. Second, as part of their corporate responsibility to respect, businesses should avoid infringing human rights and address any adverse impact with which they are involved. In its statement to the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, the Working Group pointed out that business contribution to a socially sustainable and equitable development starts with respecting the rights of people affected by their activities—in simple terms, by avoiding infringing on the rights of others and addressing the adverse human rights impacts with which they are involved.50 Importantly, in the development context, it is clarified in the Guiding Principles that, even though companies may undertake commitments to support and promote human rights, this cannot “offset” possible adverse impacts on rights elsewhere in their operations. Moreover, the corporate responsibility to respect human rights also implies that business should not undermine States’ abilities to meet their own human rights obligations, including in their development efforts. 53. The ongoing efforts at the United Nations to establish the post-2015 sustainable development framework provide a major opportunity for better integration of the business and human rights perspective. A. Post-2015 framework 1. Sustainable development goals 54. Making the private sector in the post-2015 development framework work for human rights has been identified as one of the foremost challenges for the global business and human rights agenda.51 55. The increasing acknowledgment of the role business can be playing with regard to driving economic growth and sustainable development has also been reflected in the 50 Available from www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/SP/BNUNGuidingPrinciplesBusinessHR.pdf. 51 See www.ihrb.org/top10/2015.html. 15