2005 Architects of Peace Award Citation for Mary Robinson

Comments delivered by Ethics Center Executive Director Kirk O. Hanson at the award ceremony June 25, 2005.

Mary Robinson has pioneered continuing service to her native Ireland and also to the world through her global service and many worldwide initiatives. Her commitment to human rights, particularly to those affected by war, to bridging the rich-poor gap which is at the heart of so many of the world's conflicts, sets a standard for all former leaders. Every aspect of her untiring service and travel on behalf of the peoples of the world make peace more likely and war less attractive.

Mary Robinson attended Trinity College Dublin and was appointed in 1969 as the youngest Reid Professor of Constitutional Law at Trinity in its history. She was elected an Irish Senator in the same year and served until she became her country's president in 1990. She successfully argued landmark legal cases, particularly in relation to woman's rights. As president, she elevated what had occasionally been a figurehead role into a vehicle for highlighting the needs of the disadvantaged and of raising Ireland's international profile. I like to think her focus on Ireland's diaspora - by keeping a candle in the Presidential mansion's window - helped turn the tide of immigration in 1996 back toward the new Ireland after a century of outflow.

After her extraordinarily successful service as Irish president, Mary Robinson immediately assumed in 1997 the position of United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. In this role, she traveled the globe to articulate and establish the critical link between human rights, particularly women's rights, and peace. She was the first High Commissioner to visit China. She strengthened human rights monitoring in conflict areas such as Kosovo. She noted that the High Commissioner "has no big stick except the appeal to the moral conscience of the world." She has certainly made that appeal, very effectively, but occasionally at a significant personal burden.

Today, Mary Robinson is the model of a former head of state using her skills, her contacts, her vision and her passion - for the benefit of the world. She has been a leader in the democracy movement through the Club of Madrid. She has helped start and now heads the Council of Women World Leaders, dedicated to promoting the development of women in governments around the world. And she is deeply committed to her Realizing Ethical Globalization Initiative, headquartered in New York. In her work there, she is working to press the critical message that economic development is essential to peace, and to see that corporations too play a role in the fight for human rights and peace.