First female president of Ireland to visit KU law school, address human rights

LAWRENCE -- Mary Robinson, the first female president of Ireland and the former United Nations high commissioner for human rights, will visit the University of Kansas School of Law and give a public lecture April 24.

An accomplished human rights lawyer, Robinson will present an address on "Human Rights and Ethical Globalization" at 7 p.m. in 120 Budig Hall. The speech is free and open to the public. During her visit, she also will meet with law school faculty members and give a speech to first-year law students.

During her visit to KU, Robinson, who was president of Ireland from 1990 to 1997, will have the opportunity to view KU's extensive Irish collections. The Spencer Research Library's holdings in Irish literature include some of the most significant collections in the world for such Irish literary giants as James Joyce and William Butler Yeats. At the center of the library's Irish holdings is the P.S. O'Hegarty Collection. Created by the former secretary of the Irish Post Office, the collection contains some 25,000 items from Irish history and literature, dating from the 17th to 20th centuries. All together the Irish holdings at Spencer constitute one of the largest concentrations of Irish materials outside of Ireland.

Robinson's presentation was made possible by the Stephenson Lectures in Law & Government and the David H. Fisher funds.

Robinson was appointed U.N. high commissioner for human rights in 1997 and served until 2002. Now based in New York, Robinson is leading a new project, the Ethical Globalization Initiative, supported by a partnership of the Aspen Institute, State of the World Forum and the Swiss-based International Council on Human Rights Policy. Its goal is to bring the norms and standards of human rights into the globalization process and to support capacity building in good governance in developing countries, with an initial focus on Africa.

Robinson has spent most of her life as a human rights advocate. She was educated at the University of Dublin (Trinity College), King's Inns Dublin and Harvard Law School, to which she won a fellowship in 1967. Robinson also has over 30 honorary doctoral degrees from universities around the world.

As an academic (Trinity College law faculty, 1968-90), legislator (senator, 1969-89) and barrister (1967-90; senior counsel, 1980; English Bar, 1973) she has used law as an instrument for social change, arguing landmark cases before the European Court of Human Rights as well as in the Irish courts and the European Court in Luxembourg. She also served on the International Commission of Jurists, the Advisory Committee of Interrights, and expert European Community and Irish parliamentary committees.

The recipient of numerous honors and awards throughout the world, Robinson is a member of the Royal Irish Academy and the American Philosophical Society and, since 2002, has been honorary president of Oxfam International. A founding member of the Council of Women World Leaders, she serves on many boards, including the Vaccine Fund, and chairs the Irish Chamber Orchestra.