The Taoiseach and the Minister for Foreign Affairs have paid warm tributes to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, who is to step down when her current four-year term expires in September. The former Irish President said that the UN was drowning in mandates, but its work in the area of human rights was underfunded. Mrs Robinson said that she believed she could achieve more outside the constraints of a multinational organisation.
Mrs Robinson has completed three and a half years of her four-year term. In a statement, the former Irish President said that she accepted that her decision would come as a surprise and a disappointment to many people. Mrs Robinson resigned a few months early as President of Ireland to take up one of the top positions in the UN. Now she has decided she can do more for the cause of human rights in the world outside of the confines of the UN. The Human Rights Commissioner said: "I will continue to work wholeheartedly for human rights in the way I know best - as an advocate." In her statement, Mrs Robinson said that the UN is the most important international organisation in the world and she will continue to support it, in whatever way she can.
Mrs Robinson will officially step down as High Commissioner for Human Rights in September after the Durban World Conference on Racism. She said that it had not been an easy decision to make.
