GPPi hosts Mary Robinson, past President of Ireland and former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights

On August 31, GPPi in cooperation with the Hertie School of Governance hosted an evening lecture and discussion with Mary Robinson. GPPi Director Wolfgang Reinicke introduced the former president of Ireland and former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights by stating that her own work, as well as her support as a member of GPPi’s advisory board, has ​“been a constant source of inspiration.”

Mary Robinson’s presentation, titled ​“Realizing Rights: New Alliances for Human Rights, Development and Migration”, was a frank assessment of global trends in human rights, business and migration. Robinson emphasized the role that business can play in the promotion of human rights, mentioning the Business Leaders Initiative on Human Rights which she chairs, as well as the Global Compact, an initiative aiming to promote corporate social responsibility launched by the United Nations. Robinson also highlighted that migration was a topic to be tackled by the entire global community and that the recent Global Commission on International Migration, in which she was a Commissioner, was but one example needed to develop new policies to better govern the movement of people. In addition, she stressed the responsibility of states not only to sign international conventions on all topics touching human rights, but to develop mechanism to ensure they will act according to them. Her entire lecture was underlined by a very pragmatic and hopeful approach to human rights, stating at the beginning of her speech that she founded Realizing Rights: The Ethical Globalization initiative, the NGO she now heads, in order to develop ways by which human rights can become a concrete reality.

With gentle humor and a clear passion for human rights, Mary Robinson engaged the capacity crowd of 165 at the Zeughauskino in the German History Museum in Berlin for over 90 minutes. A reception followed at the Café im Zeughaus. The event was part of the Hertie School of Governance Executive Seminar on Global Public Policy led by GPPi, which was taking place August 27 to September 1 in Dahlem-Berlin.