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We are deeply saddened by the news that Professor John Ruggie passed away on 16 September 2021. He shaped the business and human rights discourse like no other with his vision and his relentless efforts to turn the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights into actions to improve peoples’ lives. He inspired leaders in politics, business, civil society and academia to push the business and human rights agenda to the next level and to engage in a dialogue across countries, disciplines and cultures. We were fortunate at the OECD to meet with John Ruggie on many occasions to discuss the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises and the UN Guiding Principles and benefit from his insights. He used to say that he was offering his comments, including the critical ones, not only as the author of the UNGP, but as an ally and a friend of the OECD Guidelines. Indeed, his comments always served a single purpose: making the business and human rights principles work in the real world for real people and ensuring that the standards remain coherent across different organisations. As we are now moving into the next decade for the UN Guiding Principles and the OECD Guidelines, the voice of John Ruggie will be sorely missed, but his legacy will be with us on this journey.
Tribute by Jerome Bellion-Jourdan, who led negotiations for the European Union on Business and Human Rights in the UN Human Rights Council and represented the EU in several other processes on BHR/RBC from 2010 to 2019.
Tribute by Audrey Gaughran, Executive Director, and Joseph Wilde-Ramsing, Senior Researcher, on behalf of Stichting Onderzoek Multinationale Ondernemingen (SOMO)
Tribute to John Ruggie by Christine Bader, who was a member of "Team Ruggie" from 2006-11 and served as a Board Member for the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre from 2011–15
Tribute by David Schilling, Senior Program Director for Human Rights at the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, and Anita Dorett, Director of the Investor Alliance for Human Rights
Tribute by Bennett Freeman, who served as U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor from 1999-2001 and as Senior Vice President, Sustainability Research and Policy at Calvert Investments from 2006-15
Tribute by Chris Avery, Chair of the Human Rights and Business Award Foundation & Former Director (2002-2013) of the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre
Tribute by Irene Pietropaoli, Lise Smit, Claire Bright and Robert McCorquodale on behalf of the Business and Human Rights Team at the British Institute of International and Comparative Law (BIICL)
Tribute by Douglas Elmendorf, Dean at Harvard Kennedy School, where John Ruggie was the Berthold Beitz Professor in Human Rights and International Affairs
Tribute to John Ruggie by BankTrack, an international tracking, campaigning and CSO support organisation targeting commercial banks and the activities they finance.