Ethical standards needed in world affairs, Robinson says

BY LISA TREI

As international military forces consider invading Iraq, the world community must also consider its broader responsibility for securing global human rights, former Irish President Mary Robinson said Feb. 12.

"In an age in which we contemplate intervention from outside military forces to stop genocide and crimes against humanity, or to remove threats to international peace and security, shouldn't we also be defining our shared responsibility for ensuring that basic rights to food, safe water, education, shelter and health care are met throughout the world?" she asked on the opening night of the annual Tanner Lectures on Human Values.

Former Irish President Mary Robinson delivered the annual Tanner Lectures on Human Values. Photo: Kevin Scheirer

Robinson told a capacity audience in Kresge Auditorium there is far too little sense that "we are all in this together" and that a failure to establish shared values and ethical standards in national and international decision-making is at the heart of the controversy surrounding globalization.

"Although we are increasingly connected by global markets, transportation and communication, we are increasingly divided between rich and poor, North and South, religious and secular, them and us," she said. For many people, globalization has "come to mean greater vulnerability to unfamiliar and unpredictable forces that can bring on economic and social dislocation."

It doesn't have to be this way, Robinson said in her lecture titled "Human Rights and Ethical Globalization." Adopting an "ethical approach" that is more than rhetoric could help "ensure that globalization becomes a positive force for all the world's people," she said, referring to the central goal identified in the United Nations Millennium Declaration in 2000.

Robinson delivered a blunt but hopeful message about the responsibility people share in bringing about positive change. Although the world is on the brink of a war, "there is that element of the pliable and possible about it -- if we can change our minds and our hearts about what needs to be done and our responsibility to do it," she said.

Robinson was the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights from 1997 to 2002. In his introduction, President John Hennessy noted that Robinson drew connections between Ireland's Great Famine and the struggle of developing countries trying to feed their people today. After Robinson visited Somalia in 1992 following its civil war, Robinson said, "I felt shamed by what I saw, shamed, shamed. I have such a sense of what the world must take responsibility for."

Since Robinson stepped down as high commissioner last September, she has continued to address the world's problems from a human rights perspective. She is now director of a new venture called the Ethical Globalization Initiative.

Robinson said a shift in thinking is required to recognize people in need as "individuals with rights, with valid claims, rather than objects of care, benevolence and charity." She also said such a shift will "require agreement on some sharing of responsibilities for solving global problems among governments, international bodies, the business sector and civil society as a whole." This must also include a change in thinking about economic globalization, she said, from emphasizing competition to promoting more cooperation and networking.

In her first talk, Robinson outlined three worldwide challenges: the fight against HIV/AIDS, the growing controversy over migration, and how the continued lack of good governance in Africa has helped to exclude the continent from the potential benefits of globalization. In her second lecture on Feb. 13, Robinson focused on the third issue in "The Challenge of Human Rights Protection in Africa." Both lectures were followed by seminars with faculty and students.

HIV/AIDS and human rights

According to Robinson, the need for responsible engagement is nowhere more urgent than in the fight against AIDS, which is sometimes characterized as the "dark side of globalization." This year, she said, there will be 5 million new HIV infections and 3 million AIDS-related deaths. Yet fewer than 30,000 of the 30 million people in Africa with HIV and HIV-related disease receive anti-retroviral therapy. In some African countries, she said, average life expectancy is dropping by 20 or more years. "The scale of what we now face as a world community is truly beyond measure," she said.

Robinson said human rights violations contribute to the spread of AIDS. Many countries with high HIV prevalence violate women's rights through discrimination and sexual violence. In contrast, countries with rights-based public policies, such as Brazil, Uganda and Thailand, have lowered infection rates, she said. The private sector has a critical role to play in stemming the pandemic, Robinson continued: "I hope, through my own work, to engage the major pharmaceutical companies in addressing these issues from a human rights perspective."

Migration and human rights

Another key challenge of globalization is the integration of human rights into migration policies, Robinson said. About 175 million people today live outside their countries of birth. Of those, 16 million are refugees, most of whom have left because of famine, war, poverty and economic hardship. Robinson said a disjunction exists between the growing number of people who wish or need to migrate and the diminishing legal opportunities for them to do so.

"The challenge today is to provide effective protection for the human rights of this growing community," she said. "A [human] rights approach means recognizing that asylum seeking and refugees who might move illegally still have a right to be protected under international law." This would also ensure that people who have been trafficked would be viewed as victims, not offenders.

It may also be time to reconsider the current understanding of citizenship, Robinson said, which was developed at a time when most people lived their lives in a single territorial community. Such an understanding does not reflect the realities of greater opportunities to move and travel today, she said.

Africa and human rights

Human rights cannot be realized without effective government institutions, Robinson said. Although problems are caused by governments that refuse to respect the rule of law, many countries want to make good on human rights commitments but lack the capacity to do so, she explained.

"Where courts are corrupt, overburdened and inefficient, basic civil rights will be violated," she said. "Where social ministries are under-resourced, disempowered or lack qualified staff, basic rights to adequate health care, education and housing will remain unfulfilled."

Although it will take political will and the full participation of civil society to strengthen national protection systems, it will also require huge increases in resources. "Is there an international responsibility for supporting countries in need of help to build their own national structures to ensure the protection of human rights?" she asked. "If so, how do we define where these responsibilities begin and end?"

Robinson said the time has come for people to ask themselves what community means in a globalized world. "Some contend that expanding responsibilities for human rights beyond national borders could divert attention from the failings of governments," she said. "But the argument is not over whether individual governments should be supported regardless of their behavior. The issue is the extent to which there is an international responsibility to help people who have been denied their fundamental rights and the larger consequences of not taking action."