Former U.N. high commissioner for human rights gives talk at university.
By: Jeff Milgram
Mary Robinson, the former United Nations high commissioner for human rights, was in Cambodia a while ago when she met a group of 10 girls, all of whom were infected with HIV.
"They would all be dead in five years," she told a standing-room-only crowd at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs on Thursday.
Their fate should surprise no one, Mrs. Robinson said. She provided the following grim statistics about the "global catastrophe" that is HIV/AIDS:
The United Nations predicts that 5 million people will be infected with HIV and 3 million people will die of AIDS around the world this year.
Of the 30 million people in Africa who have HIV/AIDS, only 35,000 have access to the medicines that could prolong their lives.
In Botswana, life expectancy declined from 71 to 35. In Zimbabwe, it went from 70 to 36. The reason: HIV/AIDS.
Half of all 15-year-olds in some African countries will die of AIDS.
By 2010, the life expectancy in southern Africa will be 30.
"It’s a component of what some call the dark side of globalization," said Mrs. Robinson, who is now working for the Ethical Globalization Initiative to integrate human rights standards into the global economy.
But Mrs. Robinson, high commissioner from 1997 to 2000, does not despair.
"There is quite a positive story to tell," Mrs. Robinson said. In Brazil, Uganda and Thailand, public policies that incorporate human rights have cut infection rates.
In Brazil, non-governmental organizations run a hotline for gay, lesbian and transsexual HIV/AIDS patients. In neighboring Argentina, gays and lesbians face personal discrimination and are often denied hospital treatment.
"Rights violations spread HIV/AIDS," she said.
Mrs. Robinson said respect for human rights, development and democracy are strongly linked and that each person must work to promote human rights in the global community.
Citing Article 29 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Mrs. Robinson said each person must take responsibility for the rights of others. "We think of community in world, global terms," she said.
She said the costs and benefits of globalization have been unevenly shared, but that governments, international bodies and non-governmental groups must bring access to information, access to rights to the developing world without discrimination because of gender, race or color.
And, she said, people must have "the power to influence the situation.
"We must realize that globalization is a reality … but it’s a reality determined by human factors," she said.
The Ethical Global Initiative, based in New York, is taking a unique approach to human rights. "We believe it’s the poor people who are experts on poverty," Mrs. Robinson said.
As high commissioner, Mrs. Robinson gave priority to implementing the reform proposal of U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to integrate human rights concerns into all the activities of the U.N. In September 1998, she was the first high commissioner to visit China, signing an agreement that could lead to a wide-ranging program of cooperation for the improvement of human rights in that country.
Mrs. Robinson came to the U.N. after seven years as president of Ireland. She was the first head of state to visit Rwanda in the aftermath of the 1994 genocide there. She was also the first head of state to visit Somalia following the crisis there in 1992, receiving the CARE Humanitarian Award in recognition of her efforts for that country.
Mrs. Robinson’s lecture is part of the Woodrow Wilson School’s speaker series leading up to the Princeton Colloquium on Public and International Affairs. The subject of the colloquium is "A World of Good and Evil? The Return to Morality in Public and International Affairs."
The colloquium will be held April 25-26 and will address the ethical and policy considerations underlying key foreign affairs issues, ranging from homeland security to the confrontation with Iraq, from the Monterrey Declaration to global public health threats.

