HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE WAR ON TERRORISM IS THE FOCUS FOR THE 2004 JAMES E. SMITH MIDWEST CONFERENCE ON WORLD AFFAIRS (WAC) SET FOR MONDAY, FEB. 16, AT UNK

Human Rights and the War on Terrorism is the focus of the 2004 James E. Smith Midwest Conference on World Affairs (WAC) set for Monday, Feb. 16, at the University of Nebraska at Kearney.

Mary Robinson, the first woman president of Ireland (1990-1997) and more recently United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (1997-2002), will speak on human rights and terrorism at 7 p.m. in the Nebraskan Student Union, Room 238. Her presentation is free and open to the public.

“Mary Robinson has spent most of her life as a human rights advocate,” said Ann Marie Harr, coordinator of the James E. Smith Midwest Conference on World Affairs (WAC).

Born Mary Bourke in Ballina, County Mayo (1944), the daughter of two physicians, Robinson was educated at the University of Dublin (Trinity College), King’s Inns Dublin and Harvard Law School, which she attended in 1967 on a fellowship. As an academic (Trinity College Law Faculty 1968-90), legislator (Senator 1969-89) and barrister (1967-90, Senior Counsel 1980, English Bar 1973) she has always sought to use law as an instrument for social change, arguing landmark cases before the European Court of Human Rights as well as in the Irish courts and the European Court in Luxemburg. A committed European, she also served on the International Commission of Jurists, the Advisory Committee of Interrights, and on expert European Community and Irish parliamentary committees.

In 1970, she married Nicholas Robinson, lawyer, conservationist and an authority on 18th century caricature. They have a daughter and two sons. In 1988, she and her husband founded the Irish Centre for European Law at the Trinity College. Ten years later she was elected chancellor of the university.

The recipient of numerous honors and awards throughout the world, Robinson is a member of the Royal Irish Academy and the American Philosophical Society. Since 2002, she has been honorary president of Oxfam International. A founding member of the Council of Women World Leaders, she serves on numerous boards, including the vaccine fund, and chairs the Irish Chamber Orchestra.

Now based in New York, Robinson is currently leading a new project, the Ethical Globalization Initiative (EGI), which is supported by a partnership with the Aspen Institute, State of the World Forum and the Swiss based International Council on Human Rights Policy. Its goal is to bring the norms and standards of human rights into the globalization process and to support capacity building in good governance in developing countries, with an initial focus on Africa.

Please view the links below for the background information on this outstanding woman:

http://www.unhchr.ch/html/hchr/unhc.htm

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/asia/july-dec99/robinson_10-7.html

http://www.eginitiative.org/

Your source for more information and interviews:

Ann Marie Harr, Coordinator
James E. Smith Midwest Conference on World Affairs
Study Abroad
University of Nebraska at Kearney
905 West 25th, Welch Hall 104
Kearney, NE 68849
Office: 308.865.8944
Fax: 308.865.8947
Email: harram@unk.edu