A profile of Mary Robinson, Honorary President of Oxfam International
Mary Robinson was appointed the Honorary President of Oxfam International in 2002.
A former President of the Republic of Ireland, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, University Chancellor, legislator and barrister, Ms Robinson is a leading figure on international human rights and has been actively campaigning most of her life. Now living in New York , Mary Robinson is currently the Executive Director of Realising Rights: The Ethical Globalization Initiative (EGI), which is celebrating its 5th birthday . Its mission is to make human rights the compass which charts a course for globalisation that is fair, just and benefits all. Visit www.realizingrights.org for more information.
United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan announced on 9 June 1997 the appointment of Mary Robinson, President of Ireland, as the new United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. In that capacity, she assumed principal responsibility for the human rights activities of the Organization, including the tasks of streamlining the human rights machinery throughout the United Nations system and supervising the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva .
Ms. Robinson, President of Ireland from 1990 to 1997, has outstanding legal qualifications and has worked in the area of human rights with special expertise in constitutional and European human rights law. She became a member of the English Bar ( Middle Temple ) in 1973. She served as a member of the International Commission of Jurists (1987-1990) and of the Advisory Commission of Inter-Rights (1984-1990).
Among the numerous international activities relating to human rights in which she participated, Ms. Robinson served as Special Rapporteur to the Interregional Meeting organized in 1993 by the Council of Europe on the theme "Human rights at the Dawn of the 21st Century", as part of its preparation for the 1993 Vienna World Conference on Human Rights. She delivered the keynote address at the Council of Europe preparatory meeting for the Beijing Fourth World Conference on Women.
Ms. Robinson was the first Head of State to visit Rwanda in the aftermath of the genocide there and made two further visits, the most recent to address the Pan-African Conference on "Peace, Gender and Development". While in Rwanda she met representatives of, and was briefed by, agencies on the ground, as well as by the United Nations Human Rights Monitors. She was also the first Head of State to visit the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, as well as the first Head of State to visit Somalia following the crisis there in 1992. Ms. Robinson received the Special CARE Humanitarian Award in recognition of her efforts for Somalia .
As Ireland 's Head of State, Ms. Robinson represented her country internationally, developing a new sense of Ireland 's economic, political and cultural links with other countries and cultures. She placed special emphasis during her Presidency on the needs of developing countries, linking the history of the Great Irish Famine to today's nutrition, poverty and policy issues, thus creating a bridge of partnership between developed and developing countries.
21 May 1944: Born in County Mayo , Ireland
1969: Appointed Reid Professor of Constitutional and Criminal Law - Trinity College , Dublin
1969-89: Member of the Irish Upper House of Parliament
1988: Co-founds the Irish Centre for European Law
1990: First woman to become President of Ireland
1997: Appointed UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
March 2001: Announces decision to step down
April 2001: Reverses decision after appeal from Kofi Annan
2002: Leaves UN office.
Becomes Honorary President of Oxfam International
October 2002: Realizing Rights founded by Mary Robinson
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