Human Rights and former President of Ireland, addressed the Bellagio Forum on the evening of April 27. She focused her remarks on the importance of finding ways to deepen the communication and bridge the language between those committed to addressing issues of  sustainable development and those who are addressing human rights challenges.

Robinson began with a positive look back at the 2002 Johannesburg Conference on Sustainable Development. She was encouraged to see the “banner of civil society,” which was represented “predominantly by environmental groups, some development groups and a few human rights groups.” She noted that human rights were not addressed at all at previous conferences, such as Rio in 1992. However, it was the “Jo-berg” conference that acknowledged that there can be no sustainable development without human rights.

Before the Johannesburg Conference, Klaus Toepfer had encouraged her – in her office as High Commissioner on Human Rights – to organize a meeting of senior human rights and environment experts. The two-and-a-half days of brainstorming produced what Robinson calls “a very good set of … principles” intended to be presented to the member states at the Johannesburg Conference. Although not implemented at the conference, Robinson believed that the principles are a good example for communication between those committed to addressing issues of the environment and those addressing human rights challenges. “The overlap is quite significant but not yet necessarily the shared language and values,” said Robinson. “I think that your [Bellagio] Forum can be part of the bridging of that gap.”

Robinson acknowledged the great deal of discussion regarding the relation between human rights and sustainable development in both the UN as well as from donor governments. She particularly stressed the donor programs of European countries such as Switzerland (Swiss Development Cooperation), Sweden (DFID) or Ireland (Irish Aid) because they explicitly include human rights as part of what they do. She defined the challenge as the need to build the confidence necessary to work on a shared agenda that not only draws on the strengths of the environmental sustainable development approach but also on the necessary commitment of all governments under the international human rights system. Robinson underlines that rights such as the International Covenant on Economic, Cultural and Social Rights, the Convention for the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women and the Convention on the Rights of the Child reinforce the Millennium Development Goals and are “vital legal tools for civil society groups.”

Robinson stated that the Bellagio Forum’s strength lies in its ability to link foundations with their long-term horizon and its ability to take on issues based on their merits rather than the “exigencies of the market.” In tandem with corporate grant giving, Robinson was of the opinion that such combination leads to some “healthy tension.”

Robinson recognized that many countries have greatly profited from globalization, but she added that many of its victims don't show up in the statistics, such as the 30,000 children who die everyday from preventable diseases or the 600,000 women who die in child birth. Robinson acknowledged that it’s difficult to link the rich world with the realities of the very poor world. Where can endowed and corporate foundations really make a difference and address these kinds of issues? Robinson shared an example from her own experience, describing how the poverty reduction strategy in countries like Tanzania and Ghana were put into action through a joint assessment strategy. Robinson stated that this kind of coherence and effective building of synergies is what is needed in the Bellagio Forum and in the foundation world in general. She maintained that there must be “... respect for the fact that it’s the government and people of these countries who own the process, not those ... who try to help from outside. And therefore, there is a real responsibility to be extremely innovative about how to create the maximum synergies in activities that take place.” In the context of environmental challenges and sustainable development, Robinson pointed out that it is vital to talk about what the developing countries themselves identify as the key usses.

Robinson indicated that the human right to health in developing countries has to be seen as a right to a reasonably functioning health system. The human rights movement is learning to be less judgmental and rhetorical. Robinson stated that a key issue that has to be tackled is management problems, which put the health systems of many developing countries on the verge of collapse. Robinson maintained that if foundations could find a niche of coherence to strengthen the work of donor governments, they would truly be able make a difference in this area.

Robinson explained that traditionally the focus of human rights work has been on holding governments to their responsibility; because they were usually the violators of the rights. However, Robinson underlines that transnational corporations and their networks also increasingly have to be held accountable for their actions as well. As UN norms for transnational corporations and other businesses were not accepted by a significant proportion of business, alternative mechanisms like the Global Compact were established. Robinson observed that companies all over the world (example: Chinese state-owned and private companies) are recognizing the importance of tackling environmental problems and are actually interested in a value system. Robinson asked the Bellagio Forum members to build on this and to help support this positive development.

As far as global governance is concerned, Robinson strongly maintained her belief in a multi-state approach that includes international institutions, governments and corporations. Robinson had taken part in a discussion about a modeling exercis, the Helsinki Process on Globalization and Development, which proved to be a very good example how the interests and goals of various international players can be implemented. The idea was also that the government of a country would lead the discussion on a certain aspect, e.g. Finland has made a commitment to lead on the fight against corruption, or Mexico on migration, etc. It is in this context that foundations could provide a “thoughtful and knowledge-based role.” As far as reforms of the UN are concerned, Robinson stated that one has to be very patient with the process. Robinson compared her view of the UN to Churchill’s view on democracy and drew on his quote: “it’s the worst system, except for all the others.”