Fifteen years on, the UN Guiding Principles on human rights matter more than ever
16 June 2026 | 4 minute read
This article was first published on Reuters.
June 16 - Fifteen years ago, the United Nations Human Rights Council did something it almost never does: it endorsed a major normative framework unanimously. The U.N. Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs), the most authoritative international framework on the human rights responsibilities of businesses, passed without a single dissenting vote. At the time, that consensus felt like an arrival. Today it feels more like a call to action.
The UNGPs’ anniversary is an opportunity to say clearly why they matter even more today, and why the intellectual legacy of the man who made it possible, John Ruggie, is one of the most important resources we have for navigating a world coming apart at the seams.
It helps to remember what the landscape looked like before the UNGPs. The debate about whether and how companies could bear human rights responsibilities was generating more heat than light, with businesses resisting formalised responsibility and governments largely avoiding the question.
Into that impasse came Ruggie’s mandate as U.N. Special Representative on Business and Human Rights. What distinguished his approach was that he grounded his work in evidence, creating the conditions for a conversation that had previously been impossible.
