The Harvard professor overseeing a review of FIFA’s human rights policies has claimed that if the embattled governing body is serious about reform it could be a landmark moment for "advancing human dignity around the world," according to Owen Gibson of the London GUARDIAN. John Ruggie, who developed the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, will "deliver a set of recommendations to football’s crisis-hit governing body in March." Ruggie said that "he took on the challenge because the prize was so great if the desire among countries to host major sporting events could be allied to using them to improve human rights." Ruggie said, "Why would you have wanted to undertake this project? If you can pull this one off the leverage is extraordinary for advancing human rights and human dignity around the world. Nobody has a right to host the World Cup. FIFA has every right to determine the conditions as a self-governing entity and FIFA has every right to hold them to that." Ruggie said that he was not being paid directly by FIFA but that "it had a contractual relationship with Harvard (which will retain full editorial control of the report)." He said that "it was unclear how his proposals would relate to hosting decisions already taken." He will deliver advice to FIFA "over revising its statutes and drawing up new bidding guidelines and also publish an independent report." FIFA has "promised to rewrite its bidding guidelines to make them consistent with the UN guiding principles." Ruggie: "The guiding principles are not a static system -- it's not only changing the laws but changing the practices" (GUARDIAN, 2/18).
