A/HRC/14/27 VI. Conclusion 120. Resolution 8/7 extended the Special Representative’s mandate to 2011. The Council asked him to operationalize the “protect, respect and remedy” framework “with a view to providing more effective protection to individuals and communities against human rights abuses by, or involving, transnational corporations and other business enterprises”. 121. In deciding how best to pursue this task, the Special Representative found wisdom in the words of Nobel laureate Amartya Sen: “what moves us,” Sen writes, “is not the realization that the world falls short of being completely just — which few of us expect — but that there are clearly remediable injustices around us which we want to eliminate”.52 This perspective, which resonates well with the Special Representative’s own approach of “principled pragmatism”, leads one to inquire how to improve actual lives, Sen continues, rather than to theoretical characterizations of “perfectly just societies” or institutions, which in any case remain illusory. Accordingly, this report has addressed how States and companies can become more responsive and effective in dealing with business and human rights challenges. Identifying such practical measures also provides a basis for assessing the performance of States and companies, by each other, and by other stakeholders. 122. The United Nations “protect, respect and remedy” framework lays the foundations of a system for better managing business and human rights. It comprises State duties and corporate responsibilities. It includes preventative and remedial measures. It involves all relevant actors: States, businesses, affected individuals and communities, civil society and international institutions. 123. Progress within any one pillar will trigger and reinforce progress in the others. States and business have independent obligations, thus neither needs to, nor should, wait for the other to move first. As States do a better job of fulfilling their duty to protect, that will facilitate and begin to ensure that all companies meet their responsibility to respect. As companies internalize the responsibility to respect, they will increasingly support State efforts to bring laggards along. As access to remedy improves, companies and States alike will learn how better to prevent corporaterelated abuses in the first place. And so on. 124. In his 2011 report, the Special Representative will provide a set of guiding principles for the operationalization of the framework’s distinct yet complementary and interactive elements and processes. 125. The final report also will present options and recommendations to the Council regarding possible successor initiatives to the mandate. The Special Representative will engage extensively with Member States and others in developing these ideas. Nevertheless, to sustain the momentum the mandate has achieved, he is flagging one recommendation now. 126. Beyond the area of labour standards, the Special Representative has become the de facto United Nations focal point for business and human rights. States, companies, United Nations organizations and other national and international entities regularly seek his advice regarding their own corporate-related human rights policies and practices. Resource constraints limit how much he and his small team have been able to do. However, even those limited efforts will come to a halt once his mandate ends unless an advisory and capacity-building function is anchored firmly within the 52 GE.10-12629 The Idea of Justice (Harvard University Press, 2009), p. vii. 23