I will let my heart drive my commitment to human rights. But I’ll need my head to steer the heart through the very difficult global terrain on which we are travelling.

John G. Ruggie, Just Business: Multinational Corporations and Human Rights

I met John Ruggie exactly twice: on 3 December 2012, and on 2 December 2014. The first time I did, the opening session of the first UN Forum on Business and Human Rights had just wrapped up, and as the room was getting empty (imagine a thousand people leaving the Assembly Hall in UNOG), I walked to him to ask him a couple of questions (one of which was if we could take a picture together). As a young Ph.D. student, of course, meeting the architect of the UNGPs was an unmissable opportunity. He was incredibly gracious, asked where I was from, and wished me luck on my Ph.D. The second time I met him was during the third Forum. I was listening to a panel on Room XX on the role of international and regional organizations to scale up action on business and human rights, and as anyone who’s been to the Forum may recall, at some point you need to stretch your legs. I stood up and went to the back of the room. I was listening to the speakers when suddenly I looked around and was particularly surprised to realize that he was standing next to me. I was shocked (of course I didn’t expect to see him there!) and also very happy because just a few weeks back, I walked about 70 streets to buy the only copy left of his book in Barnes & Noble in NYC. I said hi, and as it happens, I had that copy with me, so he signed it. He asked me about my Ph.D. and what I thought about the panel, and we had a brief conversation about the need to engage regional organizations –especially the OAS– to actually push forward the agenda.

Even though my personal interactions with him were particularly limited (beyond listening to him speak during the Forum, through email exchanges and more recently in webinars), something he inspired –in me and many others– was an understanding of the need for action, not just statements. This is something that can be easily perceived beyond the UNGPs –from his early writings on the New International Economic Order to his more recent publications on the ongoing treaty process. But it’s also what makes the UNGPs so special: they are a roadmap of what needs to be addressed to promote change, by both States and businesses, not just a statement of what the rights and obligations are. That’s also what makes them so relevant: despite being so concise, they’ve made different stakeholders speak to each other and try to find common solutions to the complex task of protecting human rights in the context of economic activities. His was a very pragmatic approach –as many have already expressed in the past few days, he liked action and was able to get traction going between different stakeholders.

Perhaps his biggest and most powerful legacy, however, will always be the need for communication, understanding, and evidence-based decision making. Those are elements that are basic not only for business and human rights, but for social co-existence. By pushing those elements forward and insisting on their relevance, he already managed to do what he often spoke and wrote about: generate change where it matters most, in the daily lives of people.