Harvard professor to take human rights job (John Ruggie in newly created UNCHR post)

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - Secretary-General Kofi Annan appointed Harvard Professor John Ruggie on Thursday as his special representative to deal with human rights issues involving multinational corporations and other business enterprises.

The U.N. Commission for Human Rights called for the new post in a resolution earlier this year and it was approved on Monday by the U.N. Economic and Social Council.

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Ruggie will identify and clarify standards of corporate responsibility and accountability related to human rights. He is scheduled to present an interim report to the commission in 2006 and a final report in 2007.

Ruggie will remain a professor of international relations and director of the Center for Business and Government at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, a job he took after serving as a U.N. assistant secretary-general and adviser to Annan on strategic planning from 1997 to 2001.

But he will resign his current U.N. role as special adviser to Annan on the Global Compact, a voluntary U.N. agreement to promote human rights, good labor practices, environmental protection and anti-corruption standards in business, Dujarric said.

Mr. John Ruggie
The Evron and Jean Kirkpatrick Professor of International Affairs
Harvard University

John Ruggie is chief adviser for strategic planning to United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, at the rank of Assistant Secretary-General. He advises the Secretary-General on positioning the United Nations vis-à-vis major global challenges, and on UN-US relations, UN relations with the global business community and UN reform issues. He is on leave of absence as the James T. Shotwell Professor of International Relations at Columbia University, where he served as Dean of the School of International and Public Affairs from 1991-96. Professor Ruggie is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has served as president of the Association of Professional Schools of International Affairs, and on the Council of the American Political Science Association. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the National Council of UNA-USA, and a former board member of the Foreign Policy Association as well as the Academic Council on the United Nations System. John Ruggie is married to Mary Ruggie, Professor of Sociology at Columbia University. They have one son, Andreas.

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No 3• June 7, 2004
The UN Oil-for-Food Programme: What Went Wrong-and Right?
by John G. Ruggie

Editor's Note: Reports that the UN Oil-for-Food Programme (OFFP) enabled Saddam Hussein to embezzle billions of dollars have caused a considerable media stir. Accusations of UN incompetence, neglect and misconduct in the administration and oversight of the OFFP have led to several broadside attacks on the United Nations. To offer a fuller and more accurate picture of this complex story, UNA-USA is pleased to issue this Policy Brief by UN veteran and scholar, John G. Ruggie.

http://tinyurl.com/8mo66

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