Former president of Ireland Mary Robinson to visit main campus March 5

Columbia College Evening Campus

March 1, 2013

The former president of Ireland delivers the Ethics in Society Schiffman Lecture.

“Making Human Rights the Compass for All Ethical Globalization” is the title of the lecture to be delivered by Mary Robinson, former president of Ireland. The talk is part of the Althea W. and John A. Schiffman Ethics in Society lecture series and will take place Tuesday, March 5 at 7:30 p.m. in Launer Auditorium.

Robinson has spent most of her life as a human rights advocate. The former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and founder and former president of Realizing Rights: The Ethical Global Initiative and has also expanded her international leadership into business enterprise, corporate citizenship and the reform of some of the world’s most prestigious organizations.

Educated at the University of Dublin (Trinity College), the Honorable Society of King’s Inns in Dublin and Harvard Law School, she holds honorary doctorates from more than 40 universities around the world, including Yale, Brown, Columbia (put the state so people know it isn’t us …), Oxford and Cambridge.

In 2009, President Barack Obama awarded Robinson the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor, in recognition of her significant contributions to the nation and the world. She now chairs the Council of Women World Leaders and is president of the Mary Robinson Foundation - Climate Justice.

Robinson was recently appointed to the UN Global Compact Board, a group of 20 global business, labor and social leaders working to advance universal business principles in the areas of human rights, labor, the environment and anti-corruption. Making human rights the compass that charts a course for globalization that is fair, just and benefits all, she retains a high visibility on pressing issues such as global health, the battle against poverty and supporting microfinance in many nations.