Mary Robinson

Mary Robinson served as the seventh, and first woman, President of Ireland from 1990-1997, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights from 1997-2002. Robinson has been Honorary President of Oxfam International since 2002, and has chaired numerous bodies including the GAVI Alliance, vaccinating children worldwide, the Council of Women World Leaders (of which she was a co-founder), the International Institute for Environment and Development, and the Institute for Human Rights and Business. A former President of the International Commission of Jurists, Robinson serves on the board of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, which supports good governance in Africa, and is a member of the Elders, an independent group of global leaders brought together by Nelson Mandela. A member of the Royal Irish Academy and the American Philosophical Society, she is the recipient of numerous awards and honours, including the US Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the Indira Ghandi and Sydney Peace Prizes, and has been Chancellor of Dublin University since 1998. She is married to Nick Robinson with three children and four grandchildren. Now President of the Mary Robinson Foundation – Climate Justice, she lives in Dublin and Mayo. Tessa Robinson is a graduate of Trinity College Dublin and the King’s Inns. She practised as a barrister for ten years before becoming a freelance writer and copy editor. She is Mary’s daughter and lives in Dublin with her husband and two children.