Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland and former U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, will speak at the Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum at 6:45 p.m. on Wednesday, March 26, as part of the Res Publica speaker series, on the topic of Human Rights and Ethical Globalization. The lecture is free and open to the public with seating on a first-come basis. Prior to her campus visit, she will present a Res Publica lecture in downtown Los Angeles.

Robinson became the youngest Reid Professor of Constitutional and Criminal Law at Trinity College at 25. She became a member of the Irish Senate the same year and occupied the post for two decades. During this time, she also served as a member of the International Commission of Jurists and of the Advisory Commission of Inter-Rights, becoming known as a strong supporter of women’s rights. Her work resulted in the removal of discriminatory taxation of married women, the full participation of women in the jury system in Irish courts, and equal pay and equal opportunity in the workplace. Outside the country, she gained a reputation as a prominent human rights lawyer.

In 1990, Robinson was inaugurated as the seventh President of Ireland, becoming its first woman president. As leader of her country, Robinson developed new economic, cultural, and political ties with other nations. She was the first head of state to visit both Rwanda following the 1994 genocide and Somalia following the 1992 crisis, and received the Special CARE Humanitarian Award for her efforts there.

In 1997, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan nominated Robinson to the post of U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, which she has described as one of “the most demanding positions ever created by the international community.” Robinson took responsibility for all U.N. human rights activities, and assumed the tasks of improving the human rights machinery of the U.N., as well as supervising the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva. She traveled extensively during her career to countries such as Rwanda, South Africa, Colombia, and Cambodia. In September 1998, she became the first High Commissioner to visit China, signing an agreement that formed the start to a wide-ranging program of cooperation for the improvement of human rights in that country.

Although Robinson stepped down from her post as High Commissioner last year, she remains active in the area of human rights. In addition to lecturing around the world, she is director of the Ethical Globalization Initiative, an international human rights organization based in New York. A long-time believer in the political power of today’s youth, Robinson’s talk will be an important one for all CMC students. As she remarked in her acceptance speech for the Fulbright Prize in 1999, “Each of us, as individuals, shares the responsibility of promoting human rights. Young people in particular, with their energy and enthusiasm, can contribute so much.”