Just Business
Multinational Corporations and Human Rights
-
- $13.99
Publisher Description
"A true master class in the art of making the impossible possible." —Paul Polman
One of the most vexing human rights issues of our time has been how to protect the rights of individuals and communities worldwide in an age of globalization and multinational business. Indeed, from Indonesian sweatshops to oil-based violence in Nigeria, the challenges of regulating harmful corporate practices in some of the world’s most difficult regions long seemed insurmountable. Human rights groups and businesses were locked in a stalemate, unable to find common ground. In 2005, the United Nations appointed John Gerard Ruggie to the modest task of clarifying the main issues. Six years later, he had accomplished much more than that. Ruggie had developed his now-famous "Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights," which provided a road map for ensuring responsible global corporate practices. The principles were unanimously endorsed by the UN and embraced and implemented by other international bodies, businesses, governments, workers’ organizations, and human rights groups, keying a revolution in corporate social responsibility.
Just Business tells the powerful story of how these landmark “Ruggie Rules” came to exist. Ruggie demonstrates how, to solve a seemingly unsolvable problem, he had to abandon many widespread and long-held understandings about the relationships between businesses, governments, rights, and law, and develop fresh ways of viewing the issues. He also 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.
Just Business is an illuminating inside look at one of the most important human rights developments of recent times. It is also an invaluable book for anyone wanting to learn how to navigate the tricky processes of global problem-solving and consensus-building and how to tackle big issues with ambition, pragmatism, perseverance, and creativity.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In 2005, Kennedy School of Government professor Ruggie was called upon by Kofi Annan for the U.N. Commission on Human Rights to "identif... international human rights standards" that "proscribe corporate conduct... and clarif the respective roles of states and business in safeguarding those rights." Aside from contemplating atrocities such as "bonded labor in factories," the exploitation of child workers, and security guards who rape and kill, Ruggie faced enormous questions such as: "how can human rights norms most effectively be embedded in state and corporate practice to change business conduct"; and "how can this be fostered and achieved in the global sphere where multinational corporations operate but which lacks a central regulator?" Ruggie chronicles his six-year journey from a near-hopeless situation to creating the "Protect, Respect, and Remedy Framework" and a supporting set of guiding principles (endorsed by states, businesses, and civil society), which lay out the steps states and businesses must implement and includes an agreed-upon mandate that "states must protect, companies must respect, and those who are harmed must have redress." Ruggie analyzes key violations, including those by Nike, Shell, and Yahoo, before looking ahead and discussing next steps. Part of the Amnesty International Global Ethics series, this book provides a shining example to leaders that apparently insurmountable global issues are not lost causes.
