A/HRC/41/43 human rights that a business enterprise may cause or contribute to, or that may be directly linked to its operations, products or services by its business relationships. 34. Illustrative actions: (a) Unless business enterprises adopt a gender perspective, they will not be able to identify differentiated and disproportionate adverse impacts that their operations may have on women; (b) Business enterprises should internalize gender as an equality issue, rather than treating it as a “tick-box exercise” or as an add-on to human rights due diligence; (c) If a business enterprise needs to identify priority areas where risks of adverse impacts are most significant, this should be done with the participation of potentially affected communities, including women and women’s organizations; (d) Business enterprises should always regard sexual harassment and genderbased violence as risks of severe human rights impacts. They should have zero tolerance for such impacts throughout their operations. Guiding principle 18 35. In identifying and assessing any actual or potential adverse human rights impacts, business enterprises should adopt a gender-responsive approach, draw on gender experts, and conduct meaningful consultations with potentially affected women, women’s organizations (including grass-roots organizations) and women human rights defenders. 36. Illustrative actions: (a) To overcome practical barriers, patriarchal norms or threats of violence that might discourage potentially affected women from participating in impact assessment processes, business enterprises should take a proactive approach and adopt innovative means (for example, providing childcare during meetings or holding separate meetings for women); (b) Affected communities may regard participation in consultations meaningful only if it is done before a project commences, adequate information about the project is provided in an accessible and timely manner, concerns expressed by communities are taken seriously and addressed, and continuous and transparent communication is maintained; (c) Business enterprises should use sex-disaggregated data and outcome indicators to assess the true impact of their activities on women and consider that different women may be affected differently because of the intersectional nature of discrimination; (d) The presence of women’s organizations and/or trade unions in the consultation process may address the power asymmetry that generally exists between business enterprises and affected communities. Guiding principle 19 37. Business enterprises should integrate the findings from their impact assessments in all relevant processes and take a range of gender-transformative measures to prevent and mitigate adverse impacts in line with the Guiding Principles. 38. Illustrative actions: (a) Depending on the impact assessment findings, gender-transformative measures may include: (i) Revising the gender-equality policy and management processes and practices to address systematic concerns related to adverse impacts on women’s human rights; (ii) Modifying an ongoing project to prevent or minimize adverse impacts on women; (iii) Increasing gender sensitivity among enterprise personnel across all departments and supporting business partners in developing gender-responsive management systems; 21