Launch of John Ruggie's "Just Business: Multinational Corporations and Human Rights"

On May 4, the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice hosted the launch of Professor John Ruggie's "Just Business: Multinational Corporations and Human Rights." The launch featured a panel discussion moderated by Professor Philip Alston, Co-Chair of NYU School of Law's Center for Human Rights and Global Justice. Professor Ruggie and a cross-section of esteemed commentators discussed the evolution of the UN Guiding Principles, their contributions to the field of business and human rights today, and their ongoing potential as a game-changing standard of practice. Just Business tells the powerful story of how the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights came to exist. It demonstrates how, to solve a seemingly unsolvable problem, Ruggie had to abandon many widespread and long-held understandings about the relationships between business, government, rights and law, and develop fresh ways of viewing the issues. It takes us through the journey of assembling the right type of team, of witnessing the severity of the problem firsthand, and of pressing through the many obstacles such a daunting endeavor faced. In June 2011, the Guiding Principles were unanimously endorsed by the United Nations and consequently embraced and implemented by numerous other international bodies, businesses, governments, workers' organizations, and human rights groups, marking a revolution in corporate social responsibility.