...The sad reality is that access to effective remedy for the victims of corporate human rights abuses remains an exception rather than the rule. In...[the UN Working Group on Business and Human Right's] recent report presented to the UN General Assembly in October, the Working Group called for a transformative change in how we approach the issue of access to effective remedies. The report recommends that rights holders must be at the heart of the entire remedy process and all roads should lead to remedy. That is also a key premise for this Forum...

...[W]ithout well-designed and well-run remedial mechanisms, the end result can hardly be expected to be satisfactory. The Forum will therefore examine the working of a full range of such mechanisms...It is also critical to consider diverse experiences of different rights holders...Both States and businesses should therefore adopt a gender lens in implementing the Guiding Principles. Similar sensitivity should be shown towards different experiences of children, indigenous peoples, migrant workers, people with different sexual orientation and persons with disabilities, to name a few...Another key issue in making progress regarding pillar three is overcoming barriers to effective remedy...Defending human rights defenders working on corporate accountability issues is an issue which is closely linked with the Forum’s overall theme...