A/HRC/17/31 6. The Framework rests on three pillars. The first is the State duty to protect against human rights abuses by third parties, including business enterprises, through appropriate policies, regulation, and adjudication. The second is the corporate responsibility to respect human rights, which means that business enterprises should act with due diligence to avoid infringing on the rights of others and to address adverse impacts with which they are involved. The third is the need for greater access by victims to effective remedy, both judicial and non-judicial. Each pillar is an essential component in an inter-related and dynamic system of preventative and remedial measures: the State duty to protect because it lies at the very core of the international human rights regime; the corporate responsibility to respect because it is the basic expectation society has of business in relation to human rights; and access to remedy because even the most concerted efforts cannot prevent all abuse. 7. Beyond the Human Rights Council, the Framework has been endorsed or employed by individual Governments, business enterprises and associations, civil society and workers’ organizations, national human rights institutions, and investors. It has been drawn upon by such multilateral institutions as the International Organization for Standardization and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in developing their own initiatives in the business and human rights domain. Other United Nations special procedures have invoked it extensively. 8. Apart from the Framework’s intrinsic utility, the large number and inclusive character of stakeholder consultations convened by and for the mandate no doubt have contributed to its widespread positive reception. Indeed, by January 2011 the mandate had held 47 international consultations, on all continents, and the Special Representative and his team had made site visits to business operations and their local stakeholders in more than 20 countries. 9. In its resolution 8/7, welcoming the “Protect, Respect and Remedy” Framework, the Council also extended the Special Representative’s mandate until June 2011, asking him to “operationalize” the Framework – at is, to provide concrete and practical recommendations for its implementation. This constitutes the mandate’s third phase. During the interactive dialogue at the Council’s June 2010 session, delegations agreed that the recommendations should take the form of “Guiding Principles”; these are annexed to this report. 10. The Council asked the Special Representative, in developing the Guiding Principles, to proceed in the same research-based and consultative manner that had characterized his mandate all along. Thus, the Guiding Principles are informed by extensive discussions with all stakeholder groups, including Governments, business enterprises and associations, individuals and communities directly affected by the activities of enterprises in various parts of the world, civil society, and experts in the many areas of law and policy that the Guiding Principles touch upon. 11. Some of the Guiding Principles have been road-tested as well. For example, those elaborating effectiveness criteria for non-judicial grievance mechanisms involving business enterprises and communities in which they operate were piloted in five different sectors, each in a different country. The workability of the Guiding Principles’ human rights duediligence provisions was tested internally by 10 companies, and was the subject of detailed discussions with corporate law professionals from more than 20 countries with expertise in over 40 jurisdictions. The Guiding Principles addressing how Governments should help companies avoid getting drawn into the kinds of human rights abuses that all too often occur in conflict-affected areas emerged from off-the-record, scenario-based workshops with officials from a cross-section of States that had practical experience in dealing with these challenges. In short, the Guiding Principles aim not only to provide guidance that is practical, but also guidance informed by actual practice. 4