John G. Ruggie
In his role as Senior Advisor within the Corporate Social Responsibility Practice, John Ruggie advises clients on human rights-related risk and other aspects of corporate citizenship. This includes helping multinational clients navigate the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, which he authored to provide guidance to companies on managing the human rights impacts of their operations. Key elements of the Guiding Principles have been incorporated into the updated OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises and into ISO 26000, a new social responsibility standard adopted by the International Organization for Standardization.
John served as the UN Special Representative for Business and Human Rights from 2005-2011. His mandate was to propose measures to strengthen the human rights performance of the business sector around the world. In 2008, the UN Human Rights Council welcomed a policy framework he proposed for that purpose and extended the mandate for a further three years provide concrete guidance to governments and businesses. The end result was the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, drafted by John and unanimously endorsed by the U.N. Human Rights Council in June, 2011.
As one of the premier authorities on corporate citizenship and responsibility, John has made significant contributions to the study of international relations, focusing on the impact of globalization on global rule making. He has long been involved in practical policy work, initially as a consultant to various agencies of the United Nations and the United States government. From 1997-2001, John was United Nations Assistant Secretary-General for Strategic Planning – a post created specifically for him by then Secretary-General Kofi Annan. His responsibilities included establishing and overseeing the UN Global Compact, now the world’s largest corporate citizenship initiative; proposing and gaining General Assembly approval for the Millennium Development Goals; advising Annan on relations with Washington; and broadly contributing to the effort at institutional renewal for which Annan and the United Nations as a whole were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2001.
professional / civic involvement
- Council on Foreign Relations, member since 1990
- Stanley Foundation, Advisory Council, 2001-present
- Secretary-General’s Advisory Council on the Global Compact, United Nations, 2002-2005
- Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University (Japan), International Advisory Committee, 1998-2001
- American Political Science Association, Council, 1996-98
- Association of Professional Schools of International Affairs, President, 1996; Secretary-Treasurer and President-Elect, 1995
- The Academic Council on the United Nations System, Board of Directors, 1993-1996
- Foreign Policy Association, Board of Governors, 1992-1995
- United Nations Association of the United States of America, Board of Governors, 1983-1988, National Council, since 1988
- American Political Science Association, Annual Meeting, Program Committee, 1980, 1992
publications
- “Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights: Implementing the United Nations ‘Protect, Respect and Remedy’ Framework,” UN Document A/HRC/17/31 (March 21, 2011)
- “Protect, Respect and Remedy: The UN Framework for Business and Human Rights,” in M. Baderin and M. Ssenyonjo (eds), International Human Rights Law: Six Decades after the UDHR and Beyond (Ashgate, 2010)
- “Clarifying the Concepts of ‘Sphere of Influence’ and ‘Corporate Complicity’: Report of the Special Representative of the Secretary General on the Issue of Human Rights and Transnational Corporations and other Business Enterprises,” UN Document A/HRC/8/16 (May 15, 2008)
- “Business and Human Rights: The Evolving International Agenda,” American Journal of International Law (October 2007)
- “Global Markets and Global Governance: The Prospects for Convergence,” in Stephen Bernstein and Louis W. Pauly, eds, Global Governance: Towards a New Grand Compromise? (Albany: State University Press of New York, 2007)
- “Doctrinal Unilateralism and its Limits: America and Global Governance in the New Century,” in David P. Forsythe, Patrice C. McMahon and Andrew Wedeman, eds, American Foreign Policy in a Globalized World (New York: Routledge, 2006)
- “American Exceptionalism, Exemptionalism and Global Governance,” in Michael Ignatieff, ed., American Exceptionalism and Human Rights (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005)
- “Transformations in World Politics: The Intellectual Contributions of Ernst B. Haas” (with Peter J. Katzenstein, Robert O. Keohane and Philippe C. Schmitter) in Annual Review of Political Science, 8 (2005)
- “Reconstituting the Global Public Domain: Issues, Actors and Practices,” European Journal of International Relations, 10 (December 2004); also in Paul James, ed., Globalization and Economy (New Delhi: Sage, 2006)
- “The United Nations and Globalization: Patterns and Limits of Institutional Adaptation,” Global Governance, 9 (Summer 2003)
- “Taking Embedded Liberalism Global: The Corporate Connection,” in David Held and Mathias Koenig-Archibugi, eds, Taming Globalization: Frontiers of Governance (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2003)
- “Trade, Sustainability and Global Governance,” Columbia Journal of Environmental Law, 27 (No. 2, 2002)
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Constructing the World Polity: Essays on International Institutionalization, author (London and New York: Routledge, 1998)
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Winning the Peace: America and World Order in the New Era, author (New York: Columbia University Press, 1996)
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Multilateralism Matters: The Theory and Praxis of an Institutional Form, editor and contributing author (New York: Columbia University Press, 1993)
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The Antinomies of Interdependence: National Welfare and the International Division of Labor, editor and contributing author (New York: Columbia University Press, 1983)
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Power, Passions and Purpose: Prospects for North-South Negotiations, co-editor (with Jagdish Bhagwati) and contributing author (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1984)