A/HRC/4/35 page 4 6. The report is organized into five clusters of standards and practices governing corporate “responsibility” (the legal, social, or moral obligations imposed on companies) and “accountability” (the mechanisms holding them to these obligations). For ease of presentation, the five are laid out along a continuum, starting with the most deeply rooted international legal obligations, and ending with voluntary business standards. A brief discussion of trends and gaps concludes the report. The clusters are: I. II. State duty to protect Corporate responsibility and accountability for international crimes III. Corporate responsibility for other human rights violations under international law IV. Soft law mechanisms V. Self-regulation 7. This report draws on some two dozen research papers produced by or for the Special Representative.3 He has also benefited from three regional multi-stakeholder consultations in Johannesburg, Bangkok and Bogotá; civil society consultations on five continents; visits to the operations of firms in four industry sectors in developing countries; four legal expert workshops; two multi-stakeholder consultations on the extractive and financial services industries; and discussions with representatives of all relevant multilateral institutions and some government officials.4 8. The addenda to this report (A/HRC/4/35/Add.1-4) provide greater detail on some of the issues posed in resolution 2005/69. A companion report (A/HRC/4/74) addresses the important subject of human rights impact assessments (HRIAs), as requested in paragraph 1 (d) of resolution 2005/69. 9. Because the Special Representative has had fewer than 18 months to pursue this mandate, the job is not yet completed. For instance, research to date on “corporate spheres of influence” (paragraph 1 (c) of resolution 2005/69) suggests only that it lacks legal meaning; further work is 3 Those produced by or at the request of the Special Representative are posted on his home page on the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre’s website at http://www.business-humanrights.org/Gettingstarted/UNSpecialRepresentative. 4 The Special Representative also received substantive written submissions from a number of organizations, including Allens Arthur Robinson; BankTrack; Business Leaders Initiative on Human Rights; EarthRights International; Global Witness; Halifax Initiative; Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility; International Commission of Jurists; International Council on Metals and Mining; International Network for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; International Organisation of Employers; International Chamber of Commerce; Business and Industry Advisory Committee to the OECD; Lovells; Rights & Democracy, Canada; Tebtebba Foundation and Forest Peoples Programme.