Here's to You, Mary Robinson

Mary Robinson would like to kill once and for all the rumor that she ever coveted the post of U.N. secretary-general. That speculation, which began almost as soon as she assumed the role of U.N. high commissioner for human rights three and a half years ago, arose "only because I've had a very high profile as a woman," she says. Never one to mince words, Robinson is frank about just how ill-suited she would be for the top job. "I'm not a skilled diplomat in the kind of compromises a secretary-general must be prepared to make," she says. Her refusal to compromise her principles and a growing frustration at what she calls "financial and human resource restraints" at the U.N. are the main reasons behind her decision, announced last week, not to seek a second term when her mandate expires in September.

Robinson has spent her career setting precedents. At 25, she was a member of the Irish Senate and the youngest-ever law professor at Trinity College Dublin. By the time she was 46 she had become Ireland's first female president. She is only the second occupant of the high commissioner post, but her tireless campaigning — she has visited more than 60 countries — and unyielding outspokenness have transformed the office into an international bully pulpit. Her willingness to, as she puts it, "criticize those who are your masters — the member states" has rankled some members of the world body. Israel, for example, bristled when she said it used excessive force in the Palestinian territories. Russia responded angrily to her criticism of its role in Chechnya. On a visit to Beijing last month she drew the ire of Chinese officials by rebuking them for their country's use of forced prison labor. "You have to be prepared to stand up to bullies," she says. Full Story...