A/HRC/25/64 31. The Special Rapporteur also met, in Monywa, with representatives from Wanbao, the Chinese company active in developing the copper mine at Letpadaung, who expressed their commitment to addressing the concerns of the local community. The Special Rapporteur highlights the responsibility of all investors and businesses to abide by the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights: Implementing the United Nations “Protect, Respect and Remedy” Framework (A/HRC/17/31, annex). He recommends that human rights impact assessments be incorporated into the environmental and social impact assessments undertaken by large-scale development projects, which requires meaningful consultations with potentially affected groups before the start of the project. He also highlights the guiding principles on human rights impact assessments of trade and investment agreements (see A/HRC/19/59/Add.5) as providing pertinent guidance on how Myanmar can ensure that the trade and investment agreements it concludes are consistent with its international human rights obligations. 32. The Special Rapporteur is encouraged by the good progress Myanmar has made in recent months in preparing for Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative candidature. Membership will help to improve openness and the accountable management of revenues from natural resources. With the full disclosure of taxes and other payments made by oil, gas and mining companies, the public will be able to see how much the Government is receiving from the country’s natural resources. F. Situation in ethnic border areas 33. Ceasefire agreements have now been signed between the Government and 14 ethnic armed groups, which is a major achievement. The Kachin Independence Army and the Ta’ang (Palaung) National Liberation Army are the two major ethnic armed groups not to have signed. During his meeting with the Minister of the President’s Office, U Aung Min, the Special Rapporteur learned of the efforts to secure a national ceasefire accord by April and the plans for subsequent political dialogue. 34. Fighting continues in Kachin State and northern Shan State, with military operations ongoing against the Kachin Independence Army, the Shan State Army-North and the Ta’ang (Palaung) National Liberation Army. During his drive from Myitkyina to Laiza, a non-Government controlled town in Kachin State, the Special Rapporteur witnessed the physical destruction the fighting had brought to villages since fighting restarted in June 2011 following the breakdown of a 17-year ceasefire. Clashes in October and November 2013 displaced more than 2,400 people in Mansi, southern Kachin State, including 1,600 people from Nam Lim Pa who were displaced for the second time to internally displaced persons’ (IDP) camps bordering Chin State and northern Shan State. In total, some 100,000 people remain displaced in Kachin and northern Shan State. While in Laiza, the Special Rapporteur visited the Je Yang IDP camp to speak with people who had been violently displaced during military advances into their villages in August 2011, and listened to allegations of human rights violations suffered by their families and community members. This included more recent allegations of sexual violence against Kachin women and the arbitrary detention and torture, during interrogation, of young Kachin men. Since his previous report, the Special Rapporteur has continued to receive allegations of serious human rights violations accompanying military offensives. This includes allegations that more than 100 women and girls had been raped by army soldiers since 2010, and reports of 47 cases of gang rape and 28 women dying as a result of their injuries. Most of the cases are linked to the military offensives in Kachin State and northern Shan State since 2011. 35. Throughout his mandate, the Special Rapporteur has highlighted the widespread and systematic human rights violations that have accompanied the armed conflict in the ethnic 9