International human rights leader to speak at UVic

Mary Robinson, former president of Ireland and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, will deliver the next President's Distinguished Lecture on Friday, Sept. 5 at 7 p.m. in the University Centre Farquhar Auditorium. The presentation is part of the 2003 Campus and Community Celebration.

Robinson will speak on "No Sustainable Development Without Human Rights." The lecture is free and open to the public but seating is limited.

Prior to the lecture, Robinson will receive an honorary degree from UVic at a short, special convocation ceremony. The degree honours her long and distinguished record in public service, especially in the field of human rights.

Educated at the University of Dublin (Trinity College) and Harvard Law School, to which she won a fellowship in 1967, Robinson has always sought to use law as an instrument for social change. She has argued landmark cases before the European Court of Human Rights, as well as in the Irish courts and the European Court in Luxembourg.

In 1988, Robinson and her husband founded the Irish Centre for European Law at Trinity College. Ten years later she was elected chancellor of the university. Now based in New York, Robinson is currently leading a new project, the Ethical Globalization Initiative (EGI), supported by a partnership of the Aspen Institute, State of the World Forum and the Swiss-based International Council on Human Rights.