A/HRC/23/32 I. Introduction 1. The present report is submitted pursuant to Human Rights Council resolution 17/4, in which the Council established the mandate of the Working Group on the issue of human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises. 2. The Working Group notes the growing interest of all stakeholder groups, in all regions and industries, in the issue of business and human rights and in the Guiding Principles. Some 1,000 participants from more than 80 countries registered for the first Forum on Business and Human Rights, 1 far exceeding expectations. A significant number of businesses and States also responded to the pilot surveys of the Working Group and indicated a high level of awareness of the Guiding Principles and interest in engaging further thereon. 3. Another indicator of the increasing global demand for support, guidance and clarification in the area of business and human rights is the large number of requests that the Working Group responds to as a way to fulfil its mandate to disseminate and encourage the comprehensive implementation of the Guiding Principles globally. In 2012, the Working Group responded to approximately 30 requests per month to provide expert commentary and support for initiatives to set into motion or garner relevant political consensus around new or improved efforts on business and human rights aligned with the Guiding Principles. Such requests come from all stakeholders, including civil society, business and industry bodies at the national and international levels, intergovernmental organizations and multi-stakeholder initiatives, as well as State agencies. 4. In the present report, the Working Group identifies the key trends and challenges as well as priorities in the dissemination and implementation of the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, based on the Forum discussions, the pilot surveys and the information received from stakeholders. On this basis, the Working Group makes specific recommendations to advance the implementation of the Guiding Principles, and describes specific initiatives it has undertaken in accordance with the strategy it adopted and presented in its first report to the Human Rights Council. 2 II. Global developments A. Deepening alignment between global governance frameworks and the Guiding Principles 5. The Working Group has already drawn attention to key global governance frameworks that started embedding the Guiding Principles soon after their adoption in June 2011.3 Many of these are now further deepening and refining the alignment of their respective frameworks with the Guiding Principles. This includes the recommendation adopted by the Council of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) that export credit agencies should carry out human rights due diligence, 4 as well as the Organization’s mapping of how the Guiding Principles may be embedded into financial 1 2 3 4 See www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Business/Pages/ForumonBusinessandHR2012.aspx. A/HRC/20/29. Ibid. See also A/67/285. See www.oecd.org/officialdocuments/displaydocumentpdf/?cote=tad/ecg(2012)5&doclanguage=en. 3