A/HRC/17/31 Introduction to the Guiding Principles 1. The issue of business and human rights became permanently implanted on the global policy agenda in the 1990s, reflecting the dramatic worldwide expansion of the private sector at the time, coupled with a corresponding rise in transnational economic activity. These developments heightened social awareness of businesses’ impact on human rights and also attracted the attention of the United Nations. 2. One early United Nations-based initiative was called the Norms on Transnational Corporations and Other Business Enterprises; it was drafted by an expert subsidiary body of what was then the Commission on Human Rights. Essentially, this sought to impose on companies, directly under international law, the same range of human rights duties that States have accepted for themselves under treaties they have ratified: “to promote, secure the fulfilment of, respect, ensure respect of and protect human rights”. 3. This proposal triggered a deeply divisive debate between the business community and human rights advocacy groups while evoking little support from Governments. The Commission declined to act on the proposal. Instead, in 2005 it established a mandate for a Special Representative of the Secretary-General “on the issue of human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises” to undertake a new process, and requested the Secretary-General to appoint the mandate holder. This is the final report of the Special Representative. 4. The work of the Special Representative has evolved in three phases. Reflecting the mandate’s origins in controversy, its initial duration was only two years and it was intended mainly to “identify and clarify” existing standards and practices. This defined the first phase. In 2005, there was little that counted as shared knowledge across different stakeholder groups in the business and human rights domain. Thus the Special Representative began an extensive programme of systematic research that has continued to the present. Several thousand pages of documentation are available on his web portal (http://www.business-humanrights.org/SpecialRepPortal/Home): mapping patterns of alleged human rights abuses by business enterprises; evolving standards of international human rights law and international criminal law; emerging practices by States and companies; commentaries of United Nations treaty bodies on State obligations concerning business-related human rights abuses; the impact of investment agreements and corporate law and securities regulation on both States’ and enterprises’ human rights policies; and related subjects. This research has been actively disseminated, including to the Council itself. It has provided a broader and more solid factual basis for the ongoing business and human rights discourse, and is reflected in the Guiding Principles annexed to this report. 5. In 2007, the Council renewed the mandate of the Special Representative for an additional year, inviting him to submit recommendations. This marked the mandate’s second phase. The Special Representative observed that there were many initiatives, public and private, which touched on business and human rights. But none had reached sufficient scale to truly move markets; they existed as separate fragments that did not add up to a coherent or complementary system. One major reason has been the lack of an authoritative focal point around which the expectations and actions of relevant stakeholders could converge. Therefore, in June 2008 the Special Representative made only one recommendation: that the Council support the “Protect, Respect and Remedy” Framework he had developed following three years of research and consultations. The Council did so, unanimously “welcoming” the Framework in its resolution 8/7 and providing, thereby, the authoritative focal point that had been missing. 3