Former Irish President, U.N. Human Rights Official to Speak Feb. 17

WHEN: Tuesday, Feb. 17, 3:30 p.m.
WHERE: Lied Center for Performing Arts, 301 N. 12th Street

Lincoln, Neb., Feb. 6, 2004 -- Mary Robinson, the first woman president of Ireland and former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, will speak at 3:30 p.m. Feb. 17 as part of the E.N. Thompson Forum on World Issues lecture series at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

The lecture, titled "Human Rights and Ethical Globalization," is free and open to the public and occurs in the main auditorium of the Lied Center for Performing Arts, 301 N. 12th St. A pre-talk, led by David Forsythe, Charles J. Mach university professor of political science at UNL, will begin at 3 p.m. Feb. 17 in the Lied Center's Steinhart Room.

Robinson has spent most of her life as a human rights activist. This semester, she joined the faculty at Columbia University, where she is a professor of practice in the Department of International and Public Affairs and teaches a course on human rights and globalization.

As an academic, legislator and barrister, she has sought to use law as an instrument for social change. Now based in New York, Robinson also leads the Ethical Globalization Initiative, whose goal is to bring the 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. Its priority issues for 2004 are fostering more equitable international trade and development, strengthening responses to HIV/AIDS in Africa, and shaping more humane migration policies.

Robinson was president of Ireland from 1990 to 1997 and elevated the Irish presidency from a largely ceremonial role to a powerful office for effecting change both within Ireland and internationally. During her tenure as U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights (1997-2002), Robinson was instrumental in integrating human rights concerns throughout all U.N. activities, personally visiting regions of civil conflict.

In October 2002, Robinson launched the Ethical Globalization Initiative to promote a more ethical and equitable globalization process through dialogue, research and concerted action.

Robinson received a master of arts degree in 1970 from Trinity College, Dublin, and now serves as chancellor of the university. She also holds a barrister-at-law degree from the King's Inns, Dublin, and a master of law degree from Harvard University. She is a member of the Royal Irish Academy and the American Philosophical Society. A founding member and now chair of the Council of Women World Leaders, she is honorary president of Oxfam International.

The E.N. Thompson Forum on World Issues is a cooperative project of the Cooper Foundation, the Lied Center for Performing Arts and UNL. Robinson's Thompson lecture is co-presented as the Lewis E. Harris Lecture on Public Policy, named in honor of the late Lewis E. Harris, and funded by a gift from SmithKline Beckman.

For 16 years the E.N. Thompson Forum on World Issues has offered Nebraskans the opportunity to experience thought-provoking lectures presented by speakers whose work and ideas impact our changing world. Past speakers of the Forum include former Russian President Mikhail Gorbachev, Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa, and Holocaust survivor and peace activist Elie Wiesel.

Thompson lectures are presented free at the Lied Center and are broadcast live at www.unl.edu, on Lincoln cable channel 21, UNL's KRNU radio station at 90.3 FM and UNL campus TV.

For more information on other E.N. Thompson Forum on World Issues lectures, visit the UNL Thompson Forum Web site, www.cooperfoundation.org or www.liedcenter.org.

Major funding for the Thompson Forum is provided by the Cooper Foundation, which was founded in 1934 by Joseph H. Cooper, a Russian immigrant who believed in the power of knowledge. The foundation's areas of interest are education, human services, and the arts and humanities. The series is named in honor of the late E.N. Thompson, former chair of the foundation and originator of the Thompson Forum.

Lied Center programming is supported by Friends of Lied and grants from National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency; Heartland Arts Fund, jointly supported by Arts Midwest and Mid-America Arts Alliance; and the Nebraska Arts Council. All events in the Lied Center are made possible entirely or in part by the Lied Performance Fund, which has been established in memory of Ernst F. Lied and his parents, Ernst M. and Ida K. Lied.

CONTACT: Annette Wetzel, University Communications, (402) 472-8524