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Mary
Robinson
United Nations
High Commissioner for Human Rights (1997-2002)
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.
President 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.
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