News Archives: Jul. - Dec. 2010

06 December 2010
Official COP16 Side-Event co-convened by Realizing Rights
Realizing Rights co-organized an official side-event at the UNFCCC Climate Change summit in Cancun entitled "Women's Leadership on Climate Change Justice and the Grassroots Perspective". At the event, Mary Robinson released a Statement on Women's Leadership on Climate Justice.

28 November, 2010
The Chronicle of Philanthropy Examines Realizing Rights as a Nonprofit with a Planned End
As Realizing Rights approaches its planned end in December, The Chronicle of Philanthrophy looks at the difference in "charities created with their own self-destruct mechanisms built in." When asked for advice to those considering a time-limited model, Mary Robinson said, "You have to be more interested in getting results than credit."

22 November, 2010
Historic Breakthrough for the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW)
Realizing Rights has been pleased to highlight the work of CIW through advocacy efforts and our collaboration with The Elders and their Every Human Has Rights campaign. A breakthrough agreement has been made after fifteen years of often contentious relations between the CIW and the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange (FTGE).

08 November, 2010
Mary Robinson Speaker Series
A large crowd filled the Caspary Auditorium at Rockefeller University, October 26, to honor Mary Robinson. The occasion was the inaugural event in the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre's Mary Robinson Speaker Series. John Ruggie, UN Special Rep. on Business & Human Rights was joined by Lucas Benitez, Co-Director of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, and Alexandra Guбqueta, head of human rights at Cerrejуn Coal in praising Mary Robinson's work.

22 October, 2010
Want Peace and Security? Empower and Protect Women
"The promise of an international community fully committed to protecting women in conflict zones and supporting their contributions to peace remains unmet." write Mary Robinson and Bineta Diop, executive director of Femmes Africa Solidaritй. Together, they co-chair the Civil Society Advisory Group to the UN on Women, Peace and Security.

10 October, 2010
A Message from Mary Robinson on 10/10/10
Today, October 10, over 7,000 events are taking place in 188 countries for the 10/10/10 Global Work Party, the largest day of carbon-cutting action in the planet's history. 10/10/10 is a day for people across the planet to get to work on climate solutions and pressure their politicians to do the same. People are getting to work, and governments need to get to work too - directing energy and resources towards the creation of green jobs and climate justice.

08 October, 2010
10th International Conference of National Human Rights Institutions
Scotland was the host of the 10th International Conference of National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs), which took place at the Scottish Parliament from 8-10 October 2010. Keynote speakers included Navi Pillay, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Professor John Ruggie, the UN Secretary-General???s Special Representative for Business and Human Rights and Mary Robinson.

01 October, 2010
Leaders commit to taking more action for the world's women
On 25 September in New York, the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, Mary Robinson and the Governments of Austria, Bangladesh, Chile, Liberia, Namibia, Sierra Leone, United Kingdom and Canada co-convened the "Ministerial Meeting on Security Council Resolution 1325: A Call to Action."

28 September, 2010
Mary Robinson on the Need for Human Rights in an Interconnected World
In her second Big Think interview, Mary Robinson explains how fostering development helps both rich and poor countries: "It's in our total interests to help to create middle classes in the developing countries: then they will want to trade to the profit of everyone."

24 September, 2010
'Talk of the Nation' interview: Equality Still Elusive For World's Women
Women right's advocates have made some strides in recent decades. But most of the world's poorest are female, fewer girls than boys attend school and women are still vastly underrepresented in leadership positions. Mary Robinson, along with the World Bank's Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and columnist Nicholas Kristof explain the challenges of improving women's lives worldwide.

23 September, 2010
United Nations Secretary General's Global Strategy for Women???s and Children???s Health
Mary Robinson attended the launch of the UN Secretary General???s Global Strategy for Women???s and Children???s Health at the MDG review. The new global strategy has the potential to advance the Millennium Development Goal of dramatically reducing the number of maternal deaths but to be effective it must be sufficiently resourced and have a human rights focus.

23 September, 2010
Economist Magazine interviews Mary Robinson
In the week of the UN MDG Summit in New York City, Mary Robinson discusses with The Economist Magazine why the Millennium Development Goals are not being met, and why they are still worth pursuing.

22 September, 2010
At Clinton Global Initiative 2010, Mary Robinson announces commitments aimed at rethinking waste
Mary Robinson joined former US President Bill Clinton at the opening session of the 2010 Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) to announce a range of new commitments to address environmental burdens and health problems connected to trash. Members of CGI's Rethinking Waste Action Network are creating innovative solutions that turn waste into income, resources and energy.

21 September 2010
Women Can Lead the Way in Tackling Development and Climate Challenges Together
Mary Robinson and Nobel Peace Prize winner and founder of the Green Belt Movement, Wangari Maathai highlight in The Huffington Post the importance of women???s leadership in achieving the MDGs and in fighting climate change.

20 September 2010
Time to step up efforts to improve maternal health
This week world leaders gather in New York at the United Nations to review successes and shortcomings in efforts to achieve the UN Millennium Development Goals by 2015. Mary Robinson focuses on what is needed to make faster progress on MDG 5 concerning maternal health in a new article for This is Africa Online - a joint initiative of the Financial Times and the UN Development Programme.

15 September 2010
Mary Robinson Foundation - Climate Justice
As Realizing Rights approaches its planned end in December of this year, Mary Robinson is planning her return to live and work in Ireland in 2011. She has established the Mary Robinson Foundation - Climate Justice (MRFCJ) to help ensure that human rights are at the heart of the climate change agenda.

11 August 2010
Sierra Leone's Model for Improving Maternal Health and Women's Rights
Mary Robinson recently returned from a weeklong trip to Sierra Leone, where she witnessed the commitment of the government, non-governmental organizations and health workers to improve the health of the country's women and girls. Here she reflects on her experiences in an account published in The Huffington Post.

02 August 2010
Video: Women Leaders' Mission to Zimbabwe
Mary Robinson shared a dream with Nyaradzayi Gumbonzvanda, General Secretary of the World YWCA, to bring a group of women leaders to Zimbabwe to show solidarity with women there working to foster democracy and human rights. After connecting with African women who shared that same dream, they led a mission to Zimbabwe in April 2010. This video reflects on what turned out to be a historic visit.

July 29th 2010
Mary Robinson and Realizing Rights visit Sierra Leone to support efforts to improve maternal health
Mary Robinson has urged African leaders to boost support for maternal health, during a visit to Sierra Leone where mortality rates are among the highest in the world. "If the African Union succeeds in fulfilling its commitment to maternal health, it will benefit the economies of countries to have healthy populations," she said at a news conference in Freetown.

July 22nd 2010
Realizing Rights with Street Vendors in Liberia
Over the past three years, Realizing Rights has been supporting efforts by local and national actors in Liberia to address the needs of workers in the informal economy and help foster government policies aimed at promoting decent work opportunities for all. In November 2009, Realizing Rights staff visited Liberia's capital city of Monrovia to hear first-hand the concerns of street vendors and to give voice to their concerns at the highest levels of government.

July 15th 2010
Action Update - Summer 2010
As Realizing Rights approaches its planned end in December 2010, we know there is so much still to be done to demonstrate that human rights principles and approaches are key to achieving sustainable development for all.

July 5th 2010
UN and Governments urged to make new and concrete 'Commitments to Action'
To mark the tenth anniversary of UNSCR 1325 in Oct. 2010, the Civil Society Advisory Group to the UN on Women, Peace and Security (CSAG) is calling on the UN and Member States to reinforce their commitments to protecting women???s rights in the context of armed conflict and empowering women???s full participation in all peacebuilding and reconstruction processes.

July 5th 2010
Enhancing Women???s Economic Empowerment for Self Reliance in Ghana
Blog by Irina Bazarya, Program Officer: Realizing Rights believes decent work opportunities are key to achieving the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). That is why we have been supporting over the past year a project by the Global Call to Action Against Poverty (GCAP) in Ghana aimed at "Enhancing Women???s Economic Empowerment for Self Reliance". Some of our staff traveled there recently to see how small changes make a big difference in the lives of women...