News Archives: July - Dec. 2006

December 18th 2006
Health Global Radio Marathon marks International Migrant's Day
For the past six years, the international community has recognized the rights of migrants on the 18th of December, International Migrant's Day. Radio 18-12, an initiative of December 18 is the first-ever global one-day radio show connecting migrant communities worldwide to highlight their concerns and celebrate their achievements. Mary Robinson contributed to the broadcast by highlighting the importance of human rights in the growing global debates about migration.

December 10th 2006
Human Rights Day 2006
To mark Human Rights Day 2006, Mary Robinson and other prominent women leaders have co-signed a letter, published in newspapers around the world, calling for pressure to be stepped up on the government of Sudan to accept an international peacekeeping force. The letter details how "the government of Sudan has so far proved unwilling or unable to protect its own civilians and has even armed and supported the Janjaweed militia responsible for many of these attacks."

December 1st 2006
World AIDS Day 2006
Another three million people succumbed to HIV/AIDS during 2006. A total of 39.5 million people are now living with the virus. HIV/AIDS is a global pandemic. In 2006, it has increased sharply in Eastern Europe and Central Asia with the number of newly infected people jumping by 70 percent this year alone. It also continues to grow, virtually unchecked, in Southern Africa...

November 22nd 2006
Mining and Human Rights in Ghana
While on a recent trip to Ghana, Mary Robinson met with non-governmental organizations and community representatives in the capital Accra to discuss critical human rights issues facing Ghana's mining sector. In a statement, Mary Robinson detailed how she is "deeply concerned" by the information she received regarding "the range and severity of human rights problems" that continue to affect the mining industry.

November 20th 2006
Five-year anniversary of TRIPS Agreement and Public Health
This month marks the fifth anniversary of the adoption of the Doha Declaration on the World Trade Organization TRIPS Agreement and Public Health which sought to address growing concerns over patent protections and the effects on access to medicines around the world. Oxfam has issued a report which says that rich countries are taking little or no action towards their obligations and are in some cases actually undermining the declaration...

November 17th 2006
Geneva Launch of Ministerial Initiative for Global Women's Health
Following the success of the launch of Realizing Rights' new five-year program, the Ministerial Leadership Initiative for Global Women's Health, in Mozambique in September, a Geneva launch dinner was held on November 8th, 2006. At this first in a series of planned regional and global meetings to engage ministers, the Geneva meeting saw the development of a call to action on women's health.

November 17th 2006
Opinion Piece in Le Figaro | Right to Water for All
Coinciding with the launch of the 2006 UNDP Human Development Report, President of Realizing Rights Mary Robinson and Director of the Human Development Report Office at UNDP Kevin Watkins contributed an opinion piece to Le Figaro earlier this week. The piece is entitled "The Right to Water for All - a Utopia within our Reach" and is available for download in both French and English.

November 10th 2006
Mary Robinson Spotlights Human Rights Abuses in Darfur
During the Q&A session of a recent lecture, President of Realizing Rights, Mary Robinson, spoke out about the current crisis in the Darfur region of Sudan. "We are seeing the unforgivable - the never again - again. And just because they are poor and they are black, and they are voiceless, it's happening. Human beings are being killed. Women are being raped. Villages are being savaged every day and it is getting worse..."

November 2nd 2006
Mo Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership
Realizing Rights supports African businessman Dr. Mo Ibrahim's creative and generous plan to reward good governance in Africa: The Mo Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership.

November 1st 2006
Recommended Viewing: BigPicture.TV : Mohau Pheko
Mohau Pheko, Coordinator of the African Gender and Trade Network (GENTA), spoke recently with BigPicture.tv about world trade and development and the collapse of the WTO development round. Based in South Africa, GENTA delivers economic and social research to parliamentarians, women's organizations and civil servants.

October 30th 2006
Development Outreach - World Bank Institute
The October 2006 edition of the World Bank online publication Development Outreach features a special report aimed at raising debate and sharing perspectives on the relationship between human rights and economic development. Human rights experts and development practitioners worldwide have contributed articles to this special report, expressing their views from different vantage points.

October 27th 2006
New Women Leaders Forum Addresses Global Security
The newly launched Women Leaders Intercultural Forum (WLIF) seeks to move the role of women in security matters to the next level. The Forum will foster a global network of women leaders committed to transforming the global conversation on security into one that integrates human security and state security as reinforcing components.

October 21st 2006
Mary Robinson receives Prince of Asturias Award
Mary Robinson has received the Prince of Asturias Award in Social Sciences for her work as a global human rights campaigner. The jury had singled out Robinson's "moral strength", her defence of "ethics in the field of politics and academic research" and her "tireless efforts to bring about a world without borders."

October 13th 2006
Grameen Bank and Dr. Muhammad Yunus awarded Nobel Peace Prize
Realizing Rights applauds the well deserved recognition of Prof. Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank with the Nobel Peace Prize. Through this award, the Nobel Committee is highlighting a strategy that the poorest women in the world are using to lift themselves out of poverty and create a better life for themselves and their families.

October 12th 2006
Five-year MLI programme launched in Maputo, Mozambique
To mark the launch of Realizing Rights' new five-year program, the Ministerial Leadership Initiative for Global Women's Health, a series of events was held in Maputo, Mozambique, from September 18th-19th 2006, during the Special Session of the Conference of African Ministers of Health.

October 10th 2006
Mary Robinson discusses the challenges of migration and European integration
Mary Robinson participated in the 10th annual Forum 2000, which took place in Prague from October 8-10. Forum 2000 is a major international venue for exploring ways to avoid conflict, whose theme this year was "Dilemmas of Global Coexistence."

October 8th 2006
UN Resolution on Arms Trade Treaty
Later this month, the UN will vote on a resolution to start work on an Arms Trade Treaty, exactly 10 years after it was asked to vote to support a ban on land mines. It is vital that governments support this resolution, and demand that the Arms Trade Treaty has human rights at its heart...

September 28th 2006
Promoting Global Solutions to Health Worker Migration
Realizing Rights organized an event on September 12th to foster discussion on recent United Nations hearings on migrant workers and possible policy implications. Archived video coverage of all sessions is now available. Additionally, click here to read more on other recent initiatives and activities undertaken by Realizing Rights around the key issue of migration.

September 22nd 2006
International Rule of Law Symposium
The International Bar Association, in conjunction with the American Bar Association, held a major symposium, entitled "The Rule of Law - A Plan For Action" on 16-17 September 2006 in Chicago. The symposium addressed one of the most pressing issues of our time, promotion of the Rule of Law. Speakers included Mary Robinson, Ambassador Hans Corell, Justice Richard Goldstone, and The Rt. Hon. The Lord Goldsmith QC.

September 20th 2006
2006 Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting: September 20-22, 2006
The Clinton Global Initiative is a non-partisan catalyst for action, bringing together a community of global leaders to devise and implement innovative solutions to some of the world's most pressing challenges. Watch video coverage of this year's annual meeting, including the sessions moderated by Mary Robinson on "Confronting Difference: Muslim Communities In Western Societies" and "Bridging Differences in Embattled Societies".

September 19th 2006
Columbia University World Leaders Forum panel discussion
On September 26th, Columbia University World Leaders Forum, in conjunction with Women Leaders Intercultural Forum, will host a panel of women world leaders to discuss the policy changes needed to achieve a more secure world. The panel will feature Mary Robinson, President of Realizing Rights, and Kim Campbell, former Prime Minister and Minister of Defense from Canada, among others.

September 12th 2006
The other side of the wall
This week, for the first time, the United Nations is holding a special session on international migration and development, offering the United States and other leading nations "an opportunity to begin talking about the reality of migration: as a regional and global phenomenon; as a challenge of shared responsibility and common interests between governments of the global north and south; and as a vital component in addressing human security, human development and human rights in the 21st century."

September 11th 2006
Mary Robinson interviewed by PBS News
In the week that US President George W. Bush admitted to secret CIA prisons, Mary Robinson spoke to PBS News about the effects of US policies around the world since 9/11 2001 and called on the administration to change its course in the so-called 'war on terror.' Download an mp3 or podcast of the interview, view the transcript or read more.

September 10th 2006
New Women Leaders Forum to bridge global divides
On September 24-26, forty women leaders from the arts, business, government, academia, international organizations and non-profit sectors will gather in New York to launch the Women Leaders Intercultural Forum. The idea is simple: women leaders from across cultures, sectors and generations must increase leadership ties in an unprecedented way to achieve a more secure world.

September 7th 2006
Mary Robinson interviewed with Madrid11.net
In an interview with Madrid11.net, Jon Bright talked to Realizing Rights President Mary Robinson about the "war on terror", the current stand-off in Gaza, and why she thinks George Bush would be happy to shut down Guantanamo...

September 1st 2006
The Geneva Forum on Health
A three day international conference in Switzerland: The Geneva Forum "Towards Global Access to Health", has been providing an opportunity for 1,000 participants from over eighty countries to present and explore innovative partnerships and programmes facilitating access to health. Mary Robinson shared with the conference team some of the main challenges at hand when it comes to access to health for all...

August 30th 2006
Official Archived Coverage of AIDS 2006 Available
The XVI International AIDS Conference closed on Friday, August 18th in Toronto, Canada. 26,000 people participated in the conference, sharing the latest evidence, ideas and lessons learned. Archived, online coverage of AIDS 2006: XVI International AIDS Conference is now available.

August 18th 2006
Mary Robinson interviewed on Sky News about situation in Lebanon
Mary Robinson discussed the humanitarian crisis in Lebanon and the importance of women's leadership in achieving human security in both the Middle East and also globally.

August 16th 2006
HIV testing is a recurring theme at AIDS Conference in Toronto
Mary Robinson has advised against routine "opt-out" HIV testing, warning that women who disclose their HIV-positive status are often subject to physical violence. "I see the counselling before testing, the real choice about testing, the 'opt-in' position... as being about dignity, as about rights."

August 14th 2006
Mary Robinson contributes to special supplement in The Guardian
On August 12th, Irish aid agency Concern Worldwide and UK newspaper The Guardian produced a special supplement [434KB] looking at issues around the HIV/Aids pandemic, which included a call to action by Mary Robinson: "We must have an Aids-free generation by 2015. This is not a goal for us to reach, it is an imperative that we must meet. We have the tools to make prevention a reality; we just need the will..."

August 12th 2006
Global Business & Migration Project London Roundtable - 25 & 26 October 2006 [1.64MB]
The Hague Process on Refugees and Migration is a global, non-political platform that advocates to policy makers, at a local, regional, national and global level. As part of a global program, a roundtable is being delivered in London on the 25th - 26th October 2006 through a memorandum of understanding between The Foundation for the Hague Process and Realizing Rights, a partnership offered by Mary Robinson in her capacity as President of Realizing Rights and as a member of the Club of the Hague.

August 4th 2006
The Doha Trade Talks and Agricultural Subsidies
Mary Robinson participated in today's "To the Point" national radio news program co-produced by KCRW and Public Radio International. The discussion focused on the collapse of the Doha trade talks that has broken the promise of help for poor nations made in in Doha, Qatar in 2001. What will that mean for the development prospects of developing countries or the prestige and potency of the western world? Listen online or right-click here and choose "Save Target as..." to download an mp3 file [24MB] of the fifty minute show.

August 3rd 2006
Global Health Worker Migration
The shortage of doctors, nurses, and community health workers is a serious and growing problem in many developing countries, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. Not only do many countries lack the resources to train and educate all the personnel they need, but often the nurses and doctors they do produce decide to leave Africa for the better pay and more comfortable living and working conditions of the industrialized world. Read more about an important upcoming meeting being organized by Realizing Rights to address the issue of the health worker shortage in Africa.

July 27th 2006
Mary Robinson special guest at Helsinki Process Meeting in Mexico on International Migration
"The globalization of markets has not coincided with the work force, nor with the market for labor and we continue to see a sharp discrepency between the number of individuals that want to migrate and the legal opportunities for them to do so, which has fed irregular migration and terrible problems of human trafficking" stated Mary Robinson, President of Realizing Rights, at the Helsinki Process meeting on International Migration. Read more... | en espanol...

July 19th 2006
International Non Governmental Organizations' Accountability Charter
On June 6th, in London, the heads of 11 of the world's leading human rights, environmental and social development international organizations publicly endorsed the first global accountability charter for the non-profit sector. Realizing Rights welcomes all initiatives that aim to increase the accountability and transparency of government, business and non-governmental sectors.

July 14th 2006
UN General Assembly High Level Dialogue on International Migration and Development
The first ever UN General Assembly High Level Dialogue on International Migration and Development is scheduled for September 14th - 15th 2006. Realizing Rights has been contributing to the preparatory process in a number of ways...

July 11th 2006
"WMDs in slow motion"
"The US and other states have scuppered a deal to control the deadly trade in small arms" - writes Mary Robinson in today's edition of the UK newspaper, The Guardian.

July 3rd 2006
UN Small Arms Review Conference
As the UN review conference on small arms nears its close, Mary Robinson spoke to Voice of America (VOA) News about her concerns that the summit's final document may not contain any reference to international human rights law or international humanitarian law...
Download the audio interview (1.45MB) or read the interview text.