News Archives: Jan. - June 2010

June 25th 2010
"Human Rights are good business" - United Nations Global Compact Summit
From 24-25 June, representatives of more than 1,000 companies gathered in New York to assess their progress under the United Nations Global Compact, the world's largest corporate citizenship initiative. "A decade ago, few companies saw rights as relevant to their operations", writes Mary Robinson, one of the featured attendees at the summit, "but it's now clear that good ethics profit everyone."

June 15th 2010
Human Rights ??? a Foundation for Progress on the Millennium Development Goals
Realizing Rights and Amnesty International co-hosted a June 10 conference at the Ford Foundation attended by 80 representatives from governments, UN agencies, and civil society. A communiquй has been issued highlighting cross-cutting actions that can be taken to respect, protect, and fulfill human rights.

June 7th 2010
Mary Robinson Participates at Women Deliver Conference
Mary Robinson participated in a gathering of 3,500 world leaders, donors, and activists that highlighted achievements in reducing maternal mortality, breakthroughs in reproductive technology, the role of women???s health in development writ large, and remaining obstacles to improving maternal health.

May 28th 2010
Listening to the Courageous Women of Zimbabwe
In their commentary posted on The Huffington Post, Realizing Rights President Mary Robinson and World YWCA General Secretary Nyaradzayi Gumbonzvanda share the experience of a Women Leaders Intercultural Forum mission to Zimbabwe in April.

May 24th 2010
World Health Assembly Adopts Code of Practice on International Recruitment of Health Professionals
Delegates at the 63rd World Health Assembly meeting in Geneva, Switzerland have approved the WHO Global Code of Practice on the International Recruitment of Health Personnel. This new Code of Practice aims to promote the interests of health workers and ameliorate the negative effects from the international migration of health workers on countries experiencing severe health workforce crises.

May 20th 2010
Global Framework to Address International Migration of Health Workers
For more than four years, Realizing Rights and the members of its Health Worker Migration Global Policy Advisory Council have worked in close consultation with the WHO and the Global Health Workforce Alliance to develop a draft Code of Practice on the International Recruitment of Health Personnel. The Code sets forth recommended actions for governments and private sector actors in the areas of ethical recruitment and workers rights to ensure that benefits of migration flow both to sending as well as receiving nations.

May 14th 2010
Mary Robinson calls for greater attention to human rights at UN event
Mary Robinson gave a special address at UNCTAD's second Public Symposium, which focused for two days on the theme of "Responding to Global Crises: New Development Paths". Governments and international agencies need to be able to react to global trends as they affect the world's poor, Ms. Robinson said, whether the crises concerned were rapidly developing, as the global recession had been, or slower, as issues of food security continue to be.

May 10th 2010
Mary Robinson Reflects on Solidarity Mission to Support Women Leaders in 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. Read her reflections on what turned out to be a historic visit.

April 30th 2010
Women Re-energize Zimbabwe???s Global Political Agreement
On April 29th in Harare, the leaders of the women???s wings of the three main political parties signed a resolution to work across their political divides to accelerate implementation of the Global Political Agreement (GPA) and build a common agenda for women???s empowerment.

April 27th 2010
Child Labor is only a Symptom
Heather Grady, Managing Director of Realizing Rights, spoke on the panel "Just Jobs: Building Institutions for Development" at the Center for American Progress (CAP) on April 23rd. She stressed that strengthening opportunities for decent work ??? which CAP and others call the ???just jobs and social protection??? agenda ??? is an essential but often overlooked target within the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

April 27th 2010
Strengthening Women???s Role in Governance and the Constitutional Review Process in Zimbabwe
At the start of a weeklong Women Leaders Diplomacy Mission in Zimbabwe to support and strengthen women???s involvement in governance, Mary Robinson spoke about the importance of a full participatory process as Zimbabwe develops a new constitution.

April 19th 2010
Putting report on decline of maternal deaths in perspective
In a letter to The New York Times, Mary Robinson makes clear that while new data on declines in maternal deaths across the globe is encouraging, it must not be allowed to undermine the urgent need to address the factors that contribute to high levels of maternal mortality and morbidity and deny the right to health for all.

April 9th 2010
Climate Wise Women
A panel of grassroots activists from across the globe - Climate Wise Women began a worldwide speaking tour this week. These community activists can't wait for politicians and governmental negotiators to get it right on climate change. They want straight talk on what climate change is doing to women, children, families and communities around the world.

March 10th 2010
Realizing Rights celebrates International Women???s Day and participates in the Commission on the Status of Women
Realizing Rights marked International Women???s Day by joining with Women for Women International in a global campaign called Join me on the Bridge to honor the resilience of millions of women survivors of war around the world. Mary Robinson and hundreds of others walked across the Brooklyn Bridge as part of a global movement.

March 8th 2010
UN seeks advice from civil society group on role of women in peace and security
As Security Council Resolution 1325 on the role of women in peace and security marks its tenth anniversary in 2010, the United Nations has appointed a group of independent experts to advise on ways to better protect women in conflict situations and ensure that their voices are heard in peace processes, and that they are included in post-conflict reconstruction and governance structures.

March 5th 2010
Equal in Dignity and Rights
Mary Robinson joins UNICEF and rights advocates calling for basic education and gender equality: On March 4th 2010, at UNICEF House in New York City, a panel of experts including Mary Robinson discussed a report presented to the 54th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women. It explores why world leaders have failed to deliver on their promises to girls.

February 24th 2010
Special Forum in Doha on An Agenda for Human Rights
On February 22nd, the National Human Rights Committee (NHRC) of Qatar, held a Special Forum to discuss the report of a panel of experts brought together by an initiative of the Government of Switzerland in 2008: ???Protecting dignity: An agenda for human rights". Forum participants discussed a number of issues...

February 4th 2010
COP 15 and Climate Justice: Collapse, Greenwash or New Impetus for the Future?
Following on from the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December 2009, a multistakeholder event co-sponsored by Realizing Rights: The Ethical Globalization Initiative, the United Nations Non Governmental Liaison Service (UN-NGLS), and the Dag Hammarskjцld Foundation, was held on Monday 25 January at UN Headquarters in New York.

February 2nd 2010
African Women Making a Difference on Peace and Security
African women are on the move in an extraordinary way, and are determined to make their voices heard and their influence count ??? particularly on issues of peace and security. Mary Robinson blogs about witnessing this first hand at two recent meetings in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, home of the African Union (AU) Secretariat and the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA).

January 25th 2010
New Beginnings: Read Mary Robinson's plans for 2010
When I completed my term as United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in late 2002, I was committed to continuing my efforts to promote greater respect for fundamental rights around the world. I wanted Realizing Rights to be a bridge between local, national and global leadership and to work across institutional and geographic divides to solve real problems...

January 25th 2010
Making the Human Rights and Development Connection
Poverty in Focus is a regular publication of the International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth (IPC-IG). Its purpose is to present the results of research on poverty and inequality in the developing world. This month's issue (January 2010) reviews the experience of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to date and asks what we can do to accelerate MDG progress in the years 2010???2015 and beyond.

January 14th 2010
Realizing Rights and ICHRP convene Colloquium on Human Rights in the Global Economy
The primary aim of the Colloquium, convened from 11-13 January, was to promote a meaningful dialogue between policy-makers, economists and human rights advocates, from diverse institutional settings. The goal was to analyse and address more effectively human rights challenges facing countries around the world in respect of global macroeconomic policy.