A/HRC/29/28 A. Insufficient awareness of human rights responsibilities in the global business community 81. The majority of the world’s enterprises have not heard about the Guiding Principles, which is one of the principal challenges to lasting progress. Through its global reach, with over 8,000 company members, a growing participant base and connections with local businesses through 85 local networks, the Global Compact is already making a laudable contribution to raising awareness of the Guiding Principles.65 Sixty-four per cent of its participants have indicated that they are aware of the Guiding Principles,66 which is a promising basis for achieving even greater awareness. 82. While smaller in size, the UNEP Finance Initiative is also strategically positioned to contribute to closing the awareness gap, given that among its some 230 members are some of the world’s major financial institutions and given the potential catalytic role of the financial sector. One option could be to embed the Guiding Principles in all the activities of the Initiative rather than confining human rights to a subtopic under social issues. For example, as already mentioned there is a strong case for building on guidance on corporate human rights reporting aligned with the Guiding Principles, including in the context of finance. 83. The roles of both the Global Compact and the UNEP Finance Initiative in promoting the Guiding Principles could be further strengthened through improved coordinated action across relevant agencies and entities in the United Nations system to reinforce the awareness-raising efforts already undertaken by OHCHR and the Global Compact. B. Lack of capacity and understanding to grapple with the implications of the Guiding Principles 84. A lack of capacity and understanding to grapple with the implications of the Guiding Principles is cited as one of the most common challenges and one reason why uptake of the Principles has not been quicker.67 An important role of the Global Compact is to continue to collaborate with OHCHR to develop and disseminate guidance on how to implement the corporate responsibility to respect human rights in practice, both on general aspects and in relation to thematic issues.68 Global Compact initiatives with other United Nations agencies on women’s empowerment (with the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women), children’s rights (with the United Nations Children’s Fund) and indigenous peoples’ rights have helped to raise the awareness of business as to how to 65 Constructive ways for local networks to support uptake of the Guiding Principles include supporting national-level processes to develop national action plans and working with national human rights institutions. Seehttps://www.unglobalcompact.org/docs/issues_doc/human_rights/ Resources/GCLN_National_Action_Plan_Guidance.pdf and https://www.unglobalcompact.org/ resources/891. 66 See United Nations Global Compact, Global corporate sustainability report (2013), available from Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.. 67 This is the case even among companies supportive of human rights. See for example www.economistinsights.com/business-strategy/analysis/road-principles-practice. 68 The United Nations Global Compact tools and resources database provides a key portal with guidance for business, available from https://www.unglobalcompact.org/Issues/human_rights/Tools_and_Guidance_ Materials.html. See also Summary document: some key business and human rights guidance materials and how to use them, available from https://www.unglobalcompact.org/resources/341. 21