Mary Robinson
FameRank: 5

"Mary Therese Winifred Robinson" served as the List of Presidents of Ireland/seventh, and first female, President of Ireland from 1990 to 1997, and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights/United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, from 1997 to 2002. She first rose to prominence as an academic, barrister, campaigner and member of the Seanad Éireann/Irish Senate (1969–1989). She defeated Fianna Fáil's Brian Lenihan, Snr/Brian Lenihan and Fine Gael's Austin Currie in the Irish presidential election, 1990/1990 presidential election becoming, as an Independent candidate nominated by the Labour Party (Ireland)/Labour Party, the Workers' Party of Ireland/Workers' Party and independent senators, the first elected president in the office's history not to have had the support of Fianna Fáil.

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The aim of human rights, if I may borrow a term from engineering, is to move beyond the design and drawing-board phase, to move beyond thinking and talking about the foundations stones - to laying those foundation stones, inch by inch, together.

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You hear and read of the destruction, see pictures, ... very devastating ... to come and see row after row of blackened, destroyed homes.

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I was elected by the women of Ireland, who instead of rocking the cradle, rocked the system.

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It's all the more necessary that China embraces the kind of political reform and opening up of society which will also be better for human rights and prepare China to ratify the covenant on civil and political rights.

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In a society where the rights and potential of women are constrained, no man can be truly free. He may have power, but he will not have freedom.

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Pavement slippery, people sneezing,Lords in ermine, beggars freezing;Titled gluttons dainties carving,Genius in a garret starving.

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I would say that it (the visit) is not guaranteed yet.

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We are not re-inventing anything that has already been invented.

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The fifth province is not anywhere here or there, north or south, east or west. It is a place within each of us. It is that place that is open to the other, that swinging door which allows us to venture out and others to venture in.

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