Annan appoints Ruggie special representative on rights, corporations, businesses

Secretary-General Kofi Annan has announced the appointment of a veteran United Nations adviser who helped him launch the Global Compact, an initiative to promote better business practices, as Special Representative on the issue of human rights and transitional corporations and other business enterprises.

John Ruggie of the United States had previously served as Assistant Secretary-General and senior adviser for strategic planning from 1997 to 2001 and he led the Secretary-General’s successful effort at the Millennium Summit in 2000 to propose and secure the adoption of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

His new mandate includes identifying and clarifying standards of corporate responsibility and accountability with regard to human rights. An interim report presenting views and recommendations for consideration by the Commission on Human Rights is due at the sixty-second session in 2006. A final report is due in 2007.

He will remain the Kirkpatrick Professor of International Affairs and Director of the Center for Business and Government at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. But coincident with his appointment as Special Representative, and to ensure the integrity of the mandate, he will resign his current United Nations role as Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on the Global Compact.