A/HRC/14/27 for grievances to be addressed and remediated directly, thereby preventing harm from being compounded and grievances from escalating. 93. Such mechanisms may be provided directly by a company, through collaborative arrangements with other companies or organizations or by facilitating recourse to a mutually accepted external expert or body. 94. The Special Representative has identified a set of principles that all non-judicial human rights-related grievance mechanisms should meet to ensure their credibility and effectiveness: legitimacy, accessibility, predictability, equitability, rights-compatibility and transparency. A seventh principle specifically for company-level mechanisms is that they should operate through dialogue and engagement rather than the company itself acting as adjudicator.47 95. There are numerous ways for company-level mechanisms to put these principles into practice. Appropriate approaches will depend in part on the sectoral, political and cultural context, as well as the scale of a company’s operations and its potential impacts. Nevertheless, the integrity of the principles should be maintained. The pilot projects referred to in paragraph 11 are testing these principles and specific guidance points for their operationalization. B. State-based non-judicial 96. Under their duty to protect, States must take appropriate steps within their territory and/or jurisdiction to ensure access to effective remedy through judicial, administrative, legislative or other appropriate means.48 The importance of non-judicial, State-based mechanisms, alongside judicial mechanisms, is often overlooked, as regards both their complaints-handling role and other key functions they can perform, including promoting human rights, offering guidance, building capacity and providing support to companies and stakeholders. 97. National human rights institutions (NHRIs) are one promising vehicle for achieving these objectives. The Special Representative interacted with several this past year, including those of Denmark, India, Kenya and South Africa. He also met with the International Coordinating Committee, and welcomes the formation of the Working Group on Business and Human Rights. Many NHRIs are not mandated to address business-related grievances, however, or are permitted to do so only when business performs public functions or impacts certain rights. Governments should reconsider this limitation as one important step towards enhancing access to effective remedy. 98. The national contact points (NCPs), which address complaints under the OECD Guidelines, also have the potential of providing effective remedy. Thirty-one OECD member States and 11 other States adhere to the Guidelines. Several areas of improvement should be considered in updating the Guidelines to realize that potential. 99. NCPs consider roughly 40 per cent of the complaints submitted to be without substantive merit or falling beyond the Guidelines’ purview.49 A major reason for the latter is the absence of an “investment nexus” – either because the multinational involved is a buyer from, not an equity holder in, the supplier; or it is a lending institution that enabled an operating company’s foreign investment, but is not itself the investor. This approach 47 48 49 GE.10-12629 See A/HRC/8/5, para. 99. See A/HRC/11/13/Add.1. OECD, Review of NCP Performance: Key Findings, document DAF/INV/WP(2008)1/REV1. 19