Chicago Tribune - September 25, 2005
Manya Brachear, Tribune staff reporter

During her tenure, the former president of Ireland worked to recast health care, education and economic development as basic human rights.

But after the Sept. 11 attacks on the U.S., Robinson redirected her energy toward halting what she saw as the deterioration of human rights and freedom of expression, pointing to the example of immigration detainees and Guantanamo Bay prisoners held by the United States.

Now, as founder and director of the New York-based Ethical Globalization Initiative, Robinson has turned her attention to the plight and empowerment of women in developing countries.

She will be honored Tuesday in Chicago at the Rising Voice of Woman Memorial Forum, an event hosted by International Women Associates, a 400-member non-profit group that seeks to build cultural bridges and help newcomers feel at home.

The forum commemorates eight women killed in an accident in October 2003 while returning from a Japanese garden in Rockford, Ill.

Robinson spoke with Tribune staff reporter Manya Brachear last week from her office in New York. Here are excerpts of her comments.

Q. Tell me about the Ethical Globalization Initiative? Is it, as you intended, building the infrastructure needed to build societies based on rights in the developing world?

A. I'm pleased with the way it's working because we're bringing a strong human-rights focus, but also a gender perspective into the broader issue of globalization, and that means we're looking at training and development. We're keen to focus on these discussions at the World Trade Organization ministerial in Hong Kong in December and to encourage both business and also civil society, which includes women's groups, to recognize that we all need a development round, and the developing countries need it most of all.

But it's also in the interest of business, and we shouldn't lose the opportunity to harness the influence of business. ... One of the things we try to do in the project that I'm leading ... is to link unlikely partners for real progress. ... That is vital to tackle poverty.

The idea is to show that there is a business interest in a successful development round, but there is also an interest in those who are part of the global call for action against poverty. The wide civil society movement that is sometimes reflected in the work of Bono and Bob Geldof and others. That sort of common interest in the development round, that's what we're working to develop. Obviously the women's movement is very much a part of that kind of call to action against poverty.

Q. What is the biggest challenge to human rights these days?

A. Poverty certainly is included. I've always emphasized it. We need to tackle the innate poverty because very often it results in a conflict over land. For example, the basis of the terrible genocidal killing in Rwanda was a hatred between the Tutsis and the Hutus over too little land for a rising population. It's a mixture of poverty and land rights as well as ethnic interests. We're still failing to tackle the issues of terrible human-rights problems such as in Darfur or in Zimbabwe . . . and Burma. And we need to be more effective now. The latest UN summit, which failed to give the leadership as we thought on a whole range of issues, did give some leadership on the need for collective action to tackle acts of genocide and crimes against humanity. So let's hope that in the future there will be more progress in those areas.

The other issue of great interest to women is around the human right of health ... I'll be talking about this in Chicago--a call to action for strengthening health systems. You have a full range of areas where women are vulnerable and not given priority for their health issues. I'm talking about the fact that women in sub-Saharan Africa are more likely to be infected [with HIV/AIDS] than men or boys. Sixty percent of those infected are women and girls. If you look at the age between 15 and 24, girls and young women are six times more likely to become infected than boys and young men because of the power relationships. They can't say no because they don't have protection. They marry young. For all of these reasons we need to give much more priority to women's health.

And we still haven't tackled maternal mortality. There are still some 600,000 women who die every year unnecessarily in childbirth in prenatal or postnatal just because there isn't someone there who knows what to do. There is no clinic for an emergency situation. That's why the call to action is a clarion call to action, and I'll be inviting some of the women leaders in Chicago to sign on to that.

Q. How many countries would you say are in this kind of situation?

A. The main problems are in the poorest countries. So many of them are in Africa, particularly sub-Saharan Africa, but also South Asia, Caribbean and in parts of central Latin America where you have a high incidence of HIV/AIDS. ... I believe 53 countries of Africa get left out of globalization. They're all different. Every country is different. It's not a case of one-size-fits-all.

Q. Are you saying that they try one-size-fits-all policies that don't apply to these 53 countries?

A. What I'm saying is, to make it very clear, at the Millennium Summit to mark the beginning of the new 21st Century in September 2000, the world leaders at that time said it was their priority to make globalization work for all the world's people. But it doesn't work for the poorest countries of Africa. And the UN reports that into this century more African countries have gotten poorer. Their life expectancy has fallen. Child mortality has gone up. Fewer children are getting access to education. All those things that are supposed to be going positive are not. That's what I mean when I say we must keep these countries in the forefront. Whereas it is true that China and India have been able to pull hundreds of thousands of their people out of poverty by benefiting from being involved in the WTO. Being involved in economic development is helping their country. We have to recognize some countries need international assistance because women suffer even more in countries with economies doing badly.

Q. When you were president of Ireland, after much discussion and some consternation you met the Dalai Lama. What have you learned from him?

A. I am very impressed by the morality and moral voice and integrity of the Dalai Lama and his spiritual leadership in the world. I believe he is one of the leaders who can touch people. I have welcomed opportunities to meet with him to recognize that his moral leadership reaches far beyond his own people. When I was UN commissioner for human rights, I did insist that on my first visit to China I did visit Tibet. I am supportive of the cause of the Tibetan people. I tend to feel that those with a strong moral voice in our world, like Nelson Mandela, like Jimmy Carter, appeal to a wide range.

I'm obviously coming from a country where religion is a very important strong spiritual compass. As you know I've tried to open up. ... Democratic nations must make different beliefs feel at home. I was very much involved in liberalizing Irish law and family planning and divorce. Now we have an Ireland that is a prosperous country. We have a Muslim community and other faiths coming. I'm proud.

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