First female president of Ireland to visit KU

Mary Robinson, the first female president of Ireland and the former United Nations high commissioner for human rights, will visit the School of Law and give a public lecture April 24.

An accomplished human rights lawyer, Robinson will present an address on “Human Rights and Ethical Globalization” at 7 p.m. in 120 Budig Hall. The speech is free and open to the public.

She also will meet with law school faculty members and give a speech to first-year law students.

During her visit to KU, Robinson, who was president of Ireland from 1990 to 1997, will have the opportunity to view KU’s extensive Irish collections. The Spencer Research Library’s holdings in Irish literature include some of the most significant collections in the world for such Irish literary giants as James Joyce and William Butler Yeats.

Robinson was appointed U.N. high commissioner for human rights in 1997 and served until 2002.

Now based in New York, Robinson is leading a new project, the Ethical Globalization Initiative, supported by a partnership of the Aspen Institute, State of the World Forum and the Swiss-based International Council on Human Rights Policy.

Its goal is to bring the norms and standards of human rights into the globalization process and to support capacity building in good governance in developing countries, with an initial focus on Africa.

Robinson’s presentation was made possible by the Stephenson Lectures in Law & Government and the David H. Fisher funds.