Former President Of Ireland To Visit CWU

December 2, 2003

ELLENSBURG, Wash.-- Mary Robinson, who served as the first female president of Ireland from 1990 to '97, will present an address at Central Washington University on Jan. 13 at 7 p.m. in McConnell Auditorium on the Ellensburg campus. Seats will be available on a first-come, first-served basis, with the doors opening at 6:30 p.m.

Robinson's free, public presentation will be the first for the 2003-04 academic year in the CWU Presidential Speaker Series, which is focusing on globalization.

"We are delighted that the series will begin with a presentation by one of the world's foremost authorities on the many dimensions of globalization," CWU President Jerilyn S. McIntyre says. "We are honored that Mary Robinson will be sharing her insights and her expertise with the CWU campus and community."

While serving as Ireland's president, Robinson was credited with helping develop a new sense of that country's economic, political and cultural links with other countries and cultures. She gave special attention to the needs of developing countries and helped foster partnerships between developed and developing nations.

More recently, between 1997 and 2002, Robinson served as the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, where she helped integrate human rights concerns in all United Nations activities. Robinson was the first High Commissioner to visit China.

Robinson, 59, has spent much of her life as a human rights advocate. She is now leading a new project, the Ethical Globalization Initiative (EGI), that seeks "to integrate human rights norms and standards into a more ethical globalization process and to support local and national human rights capacity building efforts using the New Partnership for Africa's Development as a case study."

In 1988, Robinson co-founded the Irish Centre for European Law at Trinity College, at the University of Dublin, Ireland, and 10 years later, following her term as Ireland's president, she was elected university chancellor.

A recipient of numerous honors and awards, Robinson is a member of the Royal Irish Academy, the American Philosophical Society and, since 2002, has been Honorary President of Oxfam International, a confederation of 12 organizations working in more than 100 countries to end poverty, suffering and injustice.

A founding member of the Council of Women World Leaders, Robinson also serves on a variety of boards, including the Vaccine Fund, and chairs the Irish Chamber Orchestra.

Robinson, a graduate of Trinity College, holds law degrees from the King's Inns, Dublin, Ireland; and Harvard Law School, to which she received a fellowship in 1967.

For more information about Robinson's presentation, or for persons of disability to arrange for reasonable accommodation, call (509) 963-2111, or (for the hearing impaired) TDD (509) 963-2143.