A/HRC/38/49 national institutions from all regions attending and two dedicated sessions on their role, the Forum was able to shed light on their contribution to access to remedy, in particular through their own complaint-handling, mediation and investigative functions. 37. One key recommendation for improving the effectiveness of national human rights institutions, and for improving broader coherence in this area, was the call for closer collaboration among stakeholders to enhance positive results, greater capacity-building efforts (including through closer engagement with the OECD system), and more peer-topeer reviews to share experiences. Another recommendation was the need to equip national institutions with a mandate to receive or investigate business-related human rights complaints, and to ensure their independence and that they are allocated sufficient resources. E. Making operational-level grievance mechanisms work 38. Forum discussions on how to make operational-level grievance mechanisms work in practice were grounded in the effectiveness criteria for non-judicial mechanisms, set out in Principle 31 of the Guiding Principles. An overall point was that such mechanisms had to be part of a larger “ecosystem” of preventative and remedial mechanisms, including company frameworks. A key challenge that was repeatedly raised was the asymmetries of power in situations characterized by lack of or weak governance. 39. Attention was drawn to a review of international and national surveys by the International Commission of Jurists showing that only a small percentage of companies had some kind of operational grievance mechanism. The amount of guidance from industry level in certain sectors was, however, increasing. The Commission was currently exploring how to improve the effectiveness of operational-level mechanisms against the criteria set out in the Guiding Principles, with a focus on what the scope of such mechanisms can and should be, and on ways to address asymmetries in power, and interfacing with other types of grievance mechanisms. 40. With regard to successful worker-oriented approaches, the Fair Food Program initiated by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, representing agricultural workers in the United States of America, was highlighted.7 According to the experience gained under the initiative, to be effective, complaint resolution systems should be worker-initiated, based on the protection of workers, accessible, trusted, competent and timely. 41. Companies and industry associations in different sectors (including agriculture, apparel, consumer goods, electronics, mining, and oil and gas) that had set up or piloted operational-level grievance mechanisms found that: (a) Mechanisms should be part of a human rights due diligence approach, providing useful early warning, which helped companies to assess risks to people; (b) Tracking effectiveness and monitoring processes is critical; (c) Technology solutions can help to improve access to remedy for grievances in supply chains; (d) Brands should play a role in creating trust and transparency with suppliers, to help them to understand why a grievance mechanism is important; (e) Exercising effective leverage in support of better access to remedy, including the use of contracts, should be further explored; (f) Operational-level mechanisms cannot and should not deal with criminal investigations, although companies should support and collaborate with the relevant judicial mechanism, including by facilitating the gathering of evidence; (g) With regard to worker engagement, third-party grievance mechanisms can be a relief valve if trust is low or absent, although social dialogue is preferable; 7 10 See www.fairfoodprogram.org.