Tackling gender-based violence is a challenge former president Mary Robinson is not afraid to accept, she tells Róisín Ingle
Mary Robinson has lost little of the near-regal bearing she acquired during her seven years in the Áras. There are pearls at her throat and on her wrist. Her speech, as she sits straight-backed in an office overlooking the cobbled square of Trinity College Dublin, is measured and calm. She may be an ex-president but there is still a presidential air about the 61-year-old; on a recent visit to Dublin she was even given the presidential suite of a city-centre hotel.
"But I prefer my rooms at Trinity," says the Chancellor of the University of Dublin. "They are very homely. At this stage I can no longer be impressed by hotels, I can assure you."
After her election in 1990, Robinson famously put a candle in the window of Áras an Uachtaráin to reach out to the Irish diaspora. She smiles at the memory. "I laugh sometimes about that candle," she says, "having been part of the diaspora myself for a few years."
Her exile is not for much longer, though. Yesterday Robinson began the journey back home to Ireland when she formally accepted a role with the Gender Based Violence (GBV) consortium made up of the Government and various non-governmental organisations (NGOs).
It's a subject close to her heart: as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and these days as the head of the Ethical Globalisation Initiative in New York, she has borne witness to gender-based atrocities such as violence against women, child slavery and sexual oppression.
The Amnesty-backed consortium was formed to respond to the problem of gender-based violence after high levels of rape were reported in the conflict region of Darfur in Sudan. It's also estimated that 75 per cent of women in Liberia were raped during the conflict there. And, a decade after the genocide in Rwanda, 67 per cent of survivors of rape in that country are HIV positive.
It's surprising given the scale of the issue that this new Irish-based initiative is the first of its kind anywhere, and Robinson is clear about the reasons for this.
"Societal power has been in the hands of men for so long so we have not detected these issues sufficiently. I also don't think we women of power have done enough in this area," she says.
Some have commented that the Catholic ethos behind a number of organisations involved in the campaign against GBV may be in conflict with the battle against AIDS.
"The biggest problem," she says, "is the Christian right in the US. They have become ideological on this issue and it's damaging to women's health. But at the same time the YWCA worldwide is one of the strongest at promoting the female condom. From what I've seen, more and more of those agencies on the ground are quietly not opposing condoms and probably facilitating their use."
ROBINSON IS COMING home to a very different Ireland than the one she presided over in the 1990s, and, while her work takes her all over the world, she has kept abreast of the changes in Irish society. A year ago she visited a Christian Brothers school in the centre of Dublin and was delighted to learn there were 75 different nationalities among the students and that "it was working very well". She warns we must be careful and learn "not least from France" how to integrate migrants successfully into society.
And what does she make of modern day Mná na hÉireann to whom she made that iconic call on her inauguration?
"I am seeing the issues for women through my daughter's generation. She is in her early 30s and has two small kids and is a barrister and I see the balancing act that continues to be an issue," she says. "She is very fortunate in that she has a partner who shares the home situation but I am very concerned in US society at the number of bright women graduating with masters degrees who actually say, 'when I marry and have children I am going to cut out of the workplace'.
"It's quite worrying because they are copping out, they are not seeking to have society adjust to let them continue to fulfil their potential," she says. "I'm not sure if it's a trend in Ireland but in the States it is leading to women not staying in the workforce at senior business level, so we are back to the old problem. It might be right for some but for it to become a trend is worrying."
She is worried, too, that young Irish women are becoming complacent about their rights. "A lot is taken for granted, there is a tendency to let things slide and not tackle issues such as violence against women or the hidden barriers that remain to women's progress. The fact that there is not more sharing of responsibility in the home means women feel they can't have it all and drop out early," she says. "The superficial, consumer, sexual society is also worrying. This idea that it is all right to go pretty far in sexual encounters even if you are not serious about somebody and there is no relationship."
I mention the proliferation of lap-dancing clubs in Ireland and tell her that one of the biggest, Stringfellows, is opening in Dublin soon.
"My young would have to educate me on that, I've never even heard of them," she says with both a laugh and a grimace. Ah, you must have, I say. "I suppose I have, now you mention it, but I must have blocked it out," she says.
She is more aware, understandably, of the recent comments by Liz O'Donnell on the separation of church and State on foot of the Ferns Report.
"I think one of the sad situations in an Ireland that didn't question was the level of child abuse. It's a tragic betrayal of trust," she says. "We are seeing more and more evidence that those in authority, the bishops, did not exercise proper responsibility. I do think the church as a whole, starting with the Pope and papal nuncios here in Ireland, have to acknowledge the extent of that betrayal and the unforgivable abuse of authority and violation of people's fundamental human rights."
Her concern about violation of human rights in Guantanamo Bay cost Robinson her job as UN High Commissioner. She was accused of lacking stamina when she left her post in 2002, but the truth was different and enough time has gone by to allow Robinson to talk frankly about how her criticism of the Bush administration post-9/11 led to her not being reappointed.
"After 9/11 I found myself in the fairly lonely position of needing to be very critical of the United States because human rights have to be the standard for everybody. I was getting more and more reports back, and it's still continuing, that there was ambivalence about torture, that the Geneva conventions weren't applying. At this time I conveyed quietly that I would be prepared to stay on but it was made very clear that the US would not support me continuing and that meant goodbye," she says.
"At the time I was very low-key about it because I felt it was important not to involve the office in some kind of scandal. I knew I didn't need a UN mandate for the work I wanted to do. I also knew it was important to criticise the US and that it had helped the integrity of the international human rights agenda. The office [ UN High Commissioner] was much stronger from it and I've still got a great loyalty to the office."
THE FORMER PRESIDENT is consumed by her work and seems only to have become busier since leaving her post in the UN. Name an issue - trade, migration, Aids, vaccination, human rights, leadership, violence against women - and she name-checks the relevant conference or the coalition or the initiative or the council of which she is a member. Though based in one of the most exciting cities in the world, she rarely has time to enjoy New York.
"I love theatre," she says. "But I never have time to go."
One function she did attend this year was Glamour magazine's star-studded awards ceremony in New York's Lincoln Centre. "I don't even read Glamour magazine. I said no initially, but my team said I should do it. There were two lifetime achievement awards, one for Goldie Hawn for a lifetime of making people laugh, and one for me," shesmiles.
She agrees she is a workaholic and can finds it difficult to switch off at weekends.
"I am engaged in the work to a worrying degree," she muses. "I think it's since I became a grandmother, seeing two happy children who are lucky enough to have a lot going for them. I can be quite emotional sometimes about that - 30,000 children under five die every single day of preventable diseases or of sheer hunger. That's a silent tsunami of children every week; it's 53 tsunamis of children every year . . ." she says, her voice less assured. For a moment the poised, articulate ex-president dissolves and you get a glimpse of what drives this woman who, to her mortification, once broke down in tears at a press conference when describing the poverty in Somalia.
Within a couple of years she wants to be based in Dublin, to be close to her "gorgeous" home in Mayo where she often walks for hours around the lake. She and her husband Nick, who is writing a book on an English cartoonist, will celebrate their 35th wedding anniversary next year. "The waters run deep," she says of the relationship. "I am very happy about where I plan to end my days; it will be bás in Éirinn [ to die in Ireland], if I can help it."
This woman's work: the world according to Mrs R
On not seeking a second term as president
"It was hurtful that some people thought I'd used the presidency as a stepping-stone to the UN. We agonised over the decision but in the end I didn't think I could give 100 per cent over another seven years to a role with so much formality, tradition and repetition.
But it was the greatest honour and they were seven wonderful years."
On Ireland
"I miss everything about Ireland. I love coming back, I get on the plane with a big smile on my face. I'll be spending Christmas in Mayo."
On her working life
"I will work as long as I have my health and my family are well. I wouldn't be happy if I didn't work. I am very interested in the balance of power in the world; I find it so unfair and I am contrary enough to want to keep working at it."
On leaving her post as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
"I found myself post-9/11 needing to be very critical of the US in relation to Guantanamo; their ambivalence about torture was unacceptable. I conveyed quietly when my term ended that I'd be prepared to stay on for another three years. But it was made clear that the US would not support my continuing so that meant goodbye."
On immigration
"The new diversity in Ireland is a great strength. If we cope with it well it will give Ireland a new energy."
On her husband Nick
"If we are not together I ring him every day. He is my best friend. We would prefer if we were together more but it hasn't been a strain on the relationship because the waters run very deep."