Mary Robinson Honored with Freedom Award of Freie Universität
Recognition for Commitment of Former UN High Commissioner and Former Irish President to Human Rights
№ 352/2010 from Nov 15, 2010
As High Commissioner of the United Nations, Mary Robinson worked to make the protection of human rights part of every UN policy. She is the Freedom Award laureate in 2010.
Image Credit: Realizing Rights
The former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and former Irish President Mary Robinson has been honored with this year’s international Freedom Award of Freie Universität Berlin. She received the award in a ceremony attended by the former German Federal President, Dr. Richard von Weizsäcker, and the former President of the German Federal Constitutional Court, Prof. Dr. Jutta Limbach. With this award Freie Universität recognized Robinson’s tireless work for freedom and human rights. In her award speech Jutta Limbach called the laureate a “champion of human rights” and said she is an example to all who would take advantage of freedom to make the world a better place.
Mary Robinson, born in 1944, studied at King’s Inns in Dublin and Harvard University. At 25, she became the youngest Reid Professor of Constitutional Law at Trinity College Dublin. As a Senator in the Irish Senate from 1969 to 1989, Robinson worked hard to achieve social change, a liberalization and modernization of the Irish legal system, and more rights for women and minorities. Although these objectives were highly controversial at the time in Ireland, Robinson pursued them doggedly.
When Robinson was elected in 1990 as the first woman president of Ireland, she used her position to condemn human rights violations worldwide, particularly in crisis areas and developing countries. Her commitment to humanitarian cooperation led her to various countries including Somalia and Rwanda, where she was the first head of state to visit the country after the genocide of 1994. As the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (1997–2002) Robinson set new standards. She succeeded in making the protection of human rights part of every UN policy and in drawing more international attention to this issue. Thanks to her commitment clear standards have been created that serve to monitor the observance of human rights worldwide.
After her term as UN High Commissioner had ended, Robinson started the movement Realizing Rights: The Ethical Globalization Initiative and is currently its president. Its goal is to make globalization a positive force for all people around the world. Robinson is also president of the International Commission of Jurists, honorary president of Oxfam, and a member of The Elders – a group of persons committed to solving global problems.
The Freedom Award of Freie Universität is presented to personalities who have made outstanding contributions to political, social, or academic freedom. Last year the award went to Desmond Tutu, the South African Archbishop and Nobel Peace Prize laureate. In 2008 it was conferred on the former Polish Foreign Minister Wladyslaw Bartoszewski and in 2007 on the former President of the Republic of Korea and Nobel Peace Prize winner Kim Dae-jung.