A Voice for Human Rights

Abstract

The stage for this rather unique book is set by none less than UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, whose very first sentence of his Foreword sums up the qualities of the office and its former holder: "the job of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights is not for the faint of heart". And faint of heart Mary Robinson, the subject and, in many ways, also object of this collection of public interventions made during her five years in the 'job', certainly was not. Which is why the collection's bland title comes as somewhat a surprise, not least as Kevin Boyle, its editor, has otherwise done a marvelous job in providing everything the reader might desire from this type of publication, be it the abundance of informative annotations, and introductory commentary, the comprehensive index and appendices, or simply the thematic organization which provides a fascinating and accessible overview of the multiple dimensions of UN human rights work. Only the title, A Voice for Human Rights, just does not quite do justice to the formidable story that emerges through the many places, people and occasions with which the book deals-with the 'voice' metaphor being so commonplace that the title finds itself in the company of such illustrious monographs as The Voice of Knowledge: a practical guide to inner peace, or Songs of the Humpback Whale: a novel in five voices. Yet, commonplace is not what Mary Robinson and her term as High Commissioner can be said to have been, neither in terms of her personal endurance in the face of an abundance of challenges, nor in relation to the testing times which marked her term of office. This is why the prima facie outmoded format of a collection of public speeches works here to the benefit of the reader, as it permits the presentation of a vast range of topics with a clarity and simplicity that no deeper academic treatment could ever achieve. As a consequence, complex and controversial issues such as 'mainstreaming' or 'human rights in development' become concepts debatable far beyond the bounds of UN staff, NGO fora, or specialist academic circles. Indeed, A Voice for Human Rights is as much an eclectic, if still rather comprehensive human rights lexicon, as it is an account of Mary Robinson's particular contribution "in her own words" (p. IX). That contribution is, as already mentioned, organized into five general thematic parts, which are, in turn, subdivided into twenty chapters devoted to specific human rights topics. It ends, rather movingly, with Mary Robinson's farewell speech to her BOOK REVIEW