News Archives: January - June 2006

June 20th 2006
New Report from Business Leaders Initiative on Human Rights
The Business Leaders Initiative on Human Rights (BLIHR) helps lead and develop the corporate response to human rights. BLIHR's objective is to find practical ways of applying the aspirations of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights within a business context and to inspire other businesses to do likewise. BLIHR has reported on its work on a periodic basis since its creation in 2003. Download the latest report [1.14MB].

June 18th 2006
Initiative for Global Development
The two-day IGD 2006 National Summit, held in Washington D.C. on June 14th & 15th 2006, brought together America's foremost business leaders to discuss, debate, and decide what role the private sector can play in solving one of the greatest challenges facing the world today - how to eradicate extreme global poverty. Mary Robinson was in attendance. Read the Seattle Times article by James Vesely, staff columnist or visit the Initiative for Global Development website.

June 14th 2006
Women Leaders' Conference in Jordan
Prominent women leaders from around the globe gathered at the Dead Sea in Jordan from Sunday, June 11th to Tuesday, June 13th to open the first conference of the Global Women's Action Network for Children. The first day of the conference featured a discussion of best practices moderated by Mary Robinson.

June 8th 2006
Symposium in Honor of Allan Rosenfield
Mary Robinson participated as a panelist at a symposium held in Columbia University entitled: Taking a Stand: Challenges and Controversies in Reproductive Health, Maternal Mortality, and HIV/AIDS. Dr. Allan Rosenfield has pioneered innovative programs in reproductive health, maternal mortality, and the treatment of HIV-infected women, men, and children.
Read more or watch a video of the panel discussion on the topic of Reproductive Health and Reduction of Maternal Mortality which featured Mary Robinson.

June 8th 2006
Mary Robinson awarded Spain's Prince of Asturias Prize
In this, the 26th year the prizes have been awarded, Mary Robinson has become the first woman to win the social sciences award given out by a Spanish foundation run by Crown Prince Felipe, heir to the Spanish throne. The jury notes that the winner, from a relevant position which is universal and committed to the noblest values of our culture, has dedicated her intense life to overcoming the obstacles which prevent many from enjoying human rights, to achieving stable international relations and to introducing humanist principles into the globalized world of our time, organizers said.

June 3rd 2006
Mary Robinson delivers Keynote Speech in Pennsylvania
Mary Robinson was the Keynote Speaker at a Town Hall meeting in Pennsylvania on Saturday, June 3rd 2006. The meeting focused on developing a shared understanding of the effects of international migration both on receiving communities and on immigrants themselves.

May 30th 2006
Powerful new AIDS documentary
On the 25th anniversary of the first diagnosed cases of AIDS, PBS Television examines one of the worst pandemics the world has ever known. After a quarter century, HIV/AIDS continues to spread rapidly throughout much of the world, particularly in developing nations. To date, some 30 million people worldwide have already died of AIDS. To view and enhanced broadband version of the film in its entirety or chapter by chapter, click here.

May 25th 2006
Mary Robinson delivers inaugural address at NY University conference
Immigration Studies at New York University (IS@NYU), the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies, Harvard, and the Pew Hispanic Center convened a one-day conference of international scholars to explore in an interdisciplinary forum new empirical, conceptual, and theoretical work on Global migration to the United States. Mary Robinson was the Keynote Speaker.
Watch video (requires Real Player - Download Real Player 10 here)
or visit the Steinhardt School of Education website.

May 16th 2006
Parliamentarians for Women's Health Website Launched
Parliamentarians for Women's Health (PWH) has launched its new Web site, which provides information on the project's activities, stories of women and communities affected by HIV/AIDS, and background information on Botswana, Kenya, Namibia and Tanzania. The Web site aims to provide country leaders with HIV/AIDS and women's health information to help them make decisions that will improve women's access to health services. The Website is led by the International Center for Research on Women, European Parliamentarians for Africa, the Centre for the Study of AIDS at University of Pretoria, the International Community of Women Living with HIV/AIDS. and Realizing Rights: The Ethical Globalization Initiative.
Read the Press Release.

May 11th 2006
Mary Robinson and Paul Hunt write in the New Zealand Herald [725KB] Developed nations have an obligation to pursue policies leading to robust civil rights beyond their own borders, argue Mary Robinson and Paul Hunt in today's edition of the New Zealand Herald.

May 5th - 9th 2006
Weblog: Vist to Zambia
Mary Robinson undertook a five-day visit to Zambia earlier this year, during which she was the keynote speaker at the 6th Annual Stakeholder Meeting of the Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV) - a nonprofit organization created to discover, develop and deliver new antimalarial drugs through effective public-private partnerships. The trip also included site visits to projects in and around the capital Lusaka.

2006
Realizing Rights joins Compact to end HIV&AIDS
The International Women's Health Coalition, which promotes and protects the health and rights of women and girls worldwide, recently developed With Women Worldwide - A Compact to End HIV/AIDS as a tool for use in 2006 and beyond. Realizing Rights: The Ethical Globalization Initiative is proud to support this compact.

April 9th - 12th 2006
World Ethics Forum
The first World Ethics Forum on Leadership, Ethics, and Integrity in Public Life, held in Oxford UK, brought together over 250 leaders, thinkers, development practitioners, and youth from over 70 developed and developing countries. The goal of the Forum was to develop, empower, and connect leaders committed to integrity at all levels and in practical ways.

Watch a short video (requires Real Player - Download Real Player 10 here) where Sanjay Pradhan, Director of Public Sector Governance at the World Bank, Mary Robinson and other leaders speak briefly on world ethics.
For more information visit the World Ethics Forum website.

April 7th 2006
British hospitals are Africa's real poachers
Health workers - the people who provide health care to those who need it - are the heart of health systems. But around the world, the health workforce is in crisis - a crisis to which no country is entirely immune. Learn more about the critical health worker shortage around the world, and this year's theme: Working Together for Health .

Also, read Mary Robinson's OP-ED on the occasion of World Health Day in the UK newspaper The Independent.

April 3rd 2006
A plea to stop 'silent tsunami'
At the Albany Ethics Symposium, Mary Robinson stressed that - as the 'silent tsunami' of preventable and curable illness kills 200,000 young children every week - the world must do more to help people in developing nations.

March 12th 2006
The Observer profiles Mary Robinson
Desmond, Bono and Bob too... they all love the human rights dynamo and Realizing Rights President Mary Robinson. Carole Cadwalladr joins her on a whirlwind tour of Africa...

March 3rd 2006
Human Rights: A needed UN reform
During my time as UN high commissioner for human rights, I saw first-hand the weaknesses of the United Nations main human rights body, the Commission on Human Rights, which governments now plan to replace with a Human Rights Council...

February 22nd 2006
Interim Report of the Special Representative on Business and Human Rights
The mandate of the United Nations Special Representative on Business and Human Rights, John Ruggie, includes identifying and clarifying standards of corporate responsibility and accountability with regard to human rights. An interim report was submitted in February with a final report due in 2007. Realizing Rights offers its views on the interim report:
PDF Format

January 23rd 2006
A Voice for Human Rights
The book is an annotated collection of the speeches of Mary Robinson, given between 1997 and 2002, when she was United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. The book also provides the first in-depth account of the work of the Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights. Over five tumultuous years that included the tragic events of 9/11, she offered moral leadership and vision to the global human rights movement. Read the remarks given by Mary Robinson at the launch of the book at Columbia University in January 2006.

January 16th - 17th 2006
Haut Conseil de la Francophonie endorsement of the Right to Health Statement
At their annual meeting, the members of the Haut Conseil de la Francophonie unanimously endorsed health as a fundamental human right by signing the Right to Health Call to Action, a joint initiative of Professor Paul Hunt, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to the Highest Attainable Standard of Health, and Mary Robinson, President of Realizing Rights: The Ethical Globalization Initiative. The Haut Conseil add their names to the list of signatories which already includes forty former heads of state, international organization officials, and civic and church leaders. Read more...

January 2006
Human Rights in Focus: Global Compact Summit in China
One of the clear messages that came out of the Global Compact Summit in Shanghai was the central responsibility that national governments have for ensuring respect for human rights, and the supportive role that business and civil society at every level of society could play in this regard. At the summit, Mary Robinson urged comapanies to use a human rights framework to help shape more principled and profitable corporate performance.