Last 16 September 2021, John Gerard Ruggie, author of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and Harvard professor of human rights, international affairs, and international legal studies, passed away at the age of 76 with beloved wife Mary and son Andreas at his bedside.

Ruggie was born on 18 October 1944 in Graz, Austria, to Josef and Margaret (Macic) Ruggie. Raised in Toronto, Canada, he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in politics and history from Canada’s McMaster University (that would also award him an honorary doctorate of laws in 2000).

Ruggie moved to the US for graduate studies and received his master of arts in 1968 and Ph.D. in political science in 1974 from University of California, Berkeley.

He subsequently taught at Columbia University and rose to become dean of its School of International and Public Affairs. He also taught at the University of California’s Berkeley and San Diego campuses and directed its system-wide Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation.

In 2001, he joined Harvard Kennedy School where, at the time of his death, he was Berthold Beitz Research Professor in Human Rights and International Affairs (and was also Harvard Law’s Affiliated Professor in International Legal Studies).

For developing the UNGPs, Prof. Ruggie received awards from the American Bar Association and Washington Foreign Law Society, the latter in honour of “an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to the development and application of international law.”

This exceptional contribution came about when, in midlife, he became a diplomat by twice serving as a senior official in the United Nations and consequently applying his scholarly ideas to practical global governance.

From 1997 to 2001, he served as UN Assistant Secretary-General for Strategic Planning (a post created for him by then-Secretary-General Kofi Annan). In this capacity, he became a principal architect of the United Nations Global Compact.

Again, in 2005, he was appointed the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Business and Human Rights. It was in this position that he developed the BHR guidelines that came to be known as the “Ruggie Framework” or “Ruggie Principles.”

As an academic researcher, Ruggie produced several books, including Constructing the World Polity: Essays on International Institutionalisation (1998), and many book chapters and journal articles. His 1982 article on embedded liberalism has become the most highly cited study in International Political Economy scholarship. He is also a major contributor to constructivism in international relations.

RUGGIE IS AN EXPERT IN EMBEDDED LIBERALISM & CONSTRUCTIVISM IN IR.

In the private sector, Ruggie served on the Board of the Arabesque Group (an ESG data provider and asset manager) and the Sustainable Advisory Council of Unilever.

In civil society, he served on the Boards of nonprofits Shift (a centre of BHR expertise) and Institute for Human Rights and Business.

Among Ruggie’s lifelong hobbies were skiing, scuba and tennis. He married Mary Zacharuk on 21 May 1965. They have one child, Andreas John.