Re: What do you do?

Description: Ireland as a beacon of hope for developing countries.

Question: Beyond a simple title, how would you describe what you do for a living?

Transcript: It’s very much rooted in the international agenda of human rights, particularly the universal declaration of human rights. But it’s not saying these are just words on paper. It’s saying, “How do we make this real and operational, particularly for the poorest and the most marginalized?” So now the focus of our work is on African countries mainly. Ireland is doing very well. I love going back there. I have grandchildren there. And it’s wonderful to see how prosperous modern Ireland is. And it’s a kind of hope for poor, developing countries because the change was very rapid. We work on health as a human right. We bring together ministers of health and try to support them in coping with the many interventions on health by ________ governments, by funds, by the World Health Organization, etc. I co-chair a high level body on the terrible brain drain of health workers out in Sub-Saharan Africa and in parts of South Asia, etc. – where there’s a high disease prevalence, poor health systems, but the doctors and nurses are leaving and coming to the United States and parts of Europe – and help to make that fairer. We work on decent work. One of the things about African countries is the populations are incredibly young. In many of them, well over 50% of the population is under 25, maybe under 20, and they have no jobs. So that’s a human rights issue.

Question: How did you get into your line of work?

Transcript: It wasn’t sort of planned stage by stage. It was about law and justice, and using law as a tool to change things. I talked my way into being elected to the Senate for the university constituency by pointing out, “Why was there elderly male professors?” And so they said, “If you go forward, we’ll try and get you in.” And I learned that to make changes – particularly on issues of concern only to women . . . which weren’t the only issues, but they were important in Ireland at that time –you needed a critical mass of women in the Irish Senate. There were six out of the 60 when I was first elected. When we were 13, we began to be able to shape the agenda. And I’ve learned that women’s leadership has to be about women supporting other women trying to create those critical masses, and trying to work in a way that supports and empowers women.

When I was elected President of Ireland, it wasn’t an executive presidency. So I didn’t have the political power. I had to find a way of being complimentary to _________, the Prime Minister and his government when I was elected to bring the presidency into a very relevant position as an officer selected by the people. So I ran on a platform “A President with a Purpose.” My purpose was to change the presidency dramatically into being an office outside politics that linked closely with people; linked with the Diaspora; linked with the communities in Northern Ireland trying to make peace – linked internationally through visits to places like Rwanda and Somalia. It’s a seven year term, and I could have stood for a second term. It was the most difficult decision I think I ever had to take because I really wanted to stay on, and I had many things I wanted to do and complete; but I knew that I could only probably do it 100% for another three of four years, not for seven. There was a lot of repetition as well. So it was a really tough decision not to go forward for a second term. And then I was sort of faced with a “What do you do after you’ve been president?” You can’t just go back into the law library. Or maybe you could.

And by complete coincidence, the first UN High Commissioner for Human Rights resigned suddenly just about a few weeks after I publicly said I wouldn’t seek a second term. And I knew that the office was underfunded and there were difficulties, but I asked the Irish government to consider putting me forward as a candidate. And the Irish government actually campaigned very strongly, and Kofi Annan accepted my candidature and nominated me, and I became the UN High Commissioner in September of 1997. I even, under the pressure from Kofi Annan because the office was really in difficult circumstances, shortened a little bit my presidential term, which meant I worked all summer and took no holiday, which was a bit stupid. What I’m trying to say is that none of this was planned in a sort of “I’ll do this” and “I’ll do that” way. It sort of became a kind of organic, ________ experience. The experience as a lawyer, and as a president, and as a legislator was invaluable when I was High Commissioner for Human Rights. Going to companies of conflict with no visible legal power and trying to have a moral voice, a voice for victims, but also the institutional change. And like I had worked on the institution of the President, I found that I had to build in the Office of High Commissioner, and build a team, and build their morale, which I think was very important. Now I have a much smaller team called “Realizing Rights”. And it’s simply continuing in a more flexible, nimble, civil society way the work I’ve been doing.

Question: What are you working on now?

Transcript: When I finished my five years term as UN High Commissioner, I wanted to bring, again, that experience into linking the human rights values and the reality of economic globalization, which is so unfair and divides the world. I was influenced by Professor Hans ________, who has developed a global ethic. And he draws on the great religions of the world and sees how much they have in common as a global ethic. And I felt that similarly, the commitment to human rights should have a bearing on what happens in globalization. So we’ve been looking at trade issues, and here I wear another useful hat. I’m the Honorary President of Oxfam International. So we work with Oxfam. And I attended Cancun . . . the discussions there on trade. I was in Hong Kong for the most recent discussions. There is, on paper, a commitment to a ________ development ground which should mean fairer trade, but it’s not happening. And the rich countries continued their subsidies on agricultural goods. That’s a human rights issue. But I went to Maui with a delegation and we went out into the field. It was the women who were picking the cotton. They were poorer than they had been three or four years before because of the subsidies in the United States boosting ________ business in cotton and depressing the prices for these poor women in West Africa who have lovely cotton, but they can’t compete with the subsidies. So I saw the same thing in Mozambique with sugar, which is an EU issue . . . the European Union. So we try to frame trade issues in terms of the impact on human rights. We try to engage the private sector . . . major corporations that human rights is not just the responsibility of governments, but companies have an appropriate responsibility. We do a lot of work in that area. I mentioned already I work in health, because health is not just very important to the individual and family. A health crisis – a sick child, a dying father – can be a huge problem driving a family back into an acute poverty. So it’s very linked to family development, and also a country’s development. A country’s health system is key to whether that country will do well economically. And these are issues that engage us mostly in partnering with others and in bringing our strong human rights lens and our insistence. If you take a human rights approach, you must feel comfortable. You must think of those who are most vulnerable. You must have a gender perspective, and you must tackle corruption. So these are the kind of ways in which we show a human rights approach, and it makes a difference.

Recorded on: 7/25/07