A/HRC/38/49 I. Introduction 1. Since its first session in 2012, the Forum on Business and Human Rights has become the world’s biggest event on business and human rights. It was established by the Human Rights Council in its resolution 17/4, in which the Council also endorsed the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights: implementing the United Nations “Protect, Respect and Remedy” Framework (A/HRC/17/31, annex). The mandate of the Forum is to discuss trends and challenges in the implementation of the Guiding Principles, to promote dialogue and cooperation on issues linked to business and human rights, including challenges faced in particular sectors, operational environments or in relation to specific rights or groups, and to identify good practices. 2. The Forum is organized by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and guided and chaired by the Working Group on the issue of human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises. The present report was prepared by the Working Group in accordance with Human Rights Council resolution 35/7, in which the Council invited the Working Group to submit a report on the proceedings and thematic recommendations of the Forum to the Council for its consideration. In the present report, the Working Group provides an overview of key observations and messages emerging from the Forum. 3. The programme for the 2017 Forum included two plenary sessions and more than 80 parallel sessions, the latter organized by the Working Group, OHCHR and external organizations on the basis of extensive consultations and some 130 submitted session proposals. 4. Under the theme of “Realizing access to effective remedy”, participants in the Forum examined gaps and shortcomings in current efforts, and emerging good practices and innovations to ensure access to effective remedy. Multi-stakeholder discussions covered the full range of mechanisms envisaged under the third pillar of the Guiding Principles: State-based judicial mechanisms, State-based non-judicial grievance mechanisms, and non-State-based grievance mechanisms. 5. The Forum programme included a number of sessions dedicated to specific issues, trends and challenges in implementing all three pillars of the Guiding Principles. In addition to the dialogue held at the Forum, the Working Group facilitated a blog series to inform Forum discussions.2 6. The Forum was attended by more than 2,500 participants from 130 States, from a wide range of categories (see table below). Category of participating stakeholders (%) Total Academic 14 Private sector (business enterprises, business/industry associations, consultancies, law firms, investors) 26 Civil society organizations, affected stakeholders, trade unions and indigenous peoples’ groups 35 Multi-stakeholder initiatives 3 National human rights institutions 2 Member or Observer States 10 United Nations/intergovernmental organizations 7 Other 2 7. Participation has increased significantly since the first Forum in 2012, when around 1,000 people registered. Private sector representation has also witnessed steady growth. Some 55 per cent of registered participants were women. 2 See http://blog.journals.cambridge.org/tag/wgbizhrs/. 3