Mary Robinson to Speak on Human Rights Challenges in the Next Decade

Princeton, N.J, October 9, 2008 - Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland and former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, will speak on "Human Rights Challenges in the Next Decade" at the Institute for Advanced Study on Monday, October 27, at 4:30 p.m. in Wolfensohn Hall on the campus of the Institute.

Robinson's talk is part of the Institute's series, Lectures on Public Policy, which features speakers who elucidate and weigh in on issues relevant to contemporary politics and social conditions and address scientific matters of broad import.

With a long history of commitment to the rights of all people, Robinson founded Realizing Rights: The Ethical Globalization Initiative in 2002, with the mission of putting human rights standards at the heart of global governance and policy-making and ensuring that the needs of the poorest and most vulnerable are addressed on the global stage.

 "As we mark the sixtieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, we need to take stock of current challenges and setbacks while identifying the key issues over the next decade," commented Robinson.

About Mary Robinson

Robinson was educated at the University of Dublin (Trinity College), King's Inns and Harvard Law School, to which she won a fellowship in 1967.  She served on the Faculty of Law at Trinity College (1968-90), on the Irish Senate (1969-89) and as a barrister (1967-90) before being elected the first female president of Ireland in 1990.  Robinson served as president for seven years and was then named United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, a position she held until 2002.  Robinson is a member of the Royal Irish Academy and the American Philosophical Society and, since 2002, has been Honorary President of Oxfam International.  She is currently based in New York, where she heads Realizing Rights: The Ethical Globalization Initiative.

About the Institute for Advanced Study

The Institute for Advanced Study is one of the world's leading centers for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry.  The Institute exists to encourage and support fundamental research in the sciences and humanities - the original, often speculative, thinking that produces advances in knowledge that change the way we understand the world.  Work at the Institute takes place in four Schools:  Historical Studies, Mathematics, Natural Sciences and Social Science.  It provides for the mentoring of scholars by a permanent Faculty of twenty-seven, and it offers all who work there the freedom to undertake research that will make significant contributions in any of the broad range of fields in the sciences and humanities studied at the Institute.

The Institute, founded in 1930, is a private, independent academic institution located in Princeton, New Jersey.  Its more than 5,000 former Members hold positions of intellectual and scientific leadership throughout the academic world.  Some twenty-two Nobel Laureates and thirty-four out of forty-eight Fields Medalists, as well as many winners of the Wolf and MacArthur prizes, have been affiliated with the Institute.

For further information about this event, which is free and open to the public, please call (609) 734-8175, or visit the Public Events page on the Institute website, www.ias.edu.