THE nomination of Mary Robinson to be the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights is a welcome development. It promises to revitalise the UN's work in this important but often neglected area.
In making this appointment, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has turned to a dynamic leader with unquestioned integrity and passion, who is certain to give the cause of human rights greater prominence. As high commissioner she will be in a position to help thousands of people around the world who are the victims, of arbitrary and often violent action by governments.
Not all governments want the UN to act effectively on human rights, and its record has been mixed. But Mary Robinson's appointment signals a recognition by the new leadership that human rights issues must be seriously addressed if the international community is to be successful in tackling its traditional agenda.
Already an important figure on the international stage, President Robinson has linked her understanding of Ireland's history - the tragedy of famine and challenges arising from mass migration - with her vision for the developing world. She was the first head of state to visit Rwanda after the genocide, and the first to travel to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague.
Her challenge to the international community for failing to address the humanitarian crisis in Somalia sounded a wakeup call to a complacent world. In these and other crisis spots she has been steadfast in insisting that "countries can no longer say how they treat their own inhabitants is solely their own business".
Mrs Robinson's predecessor, Jose Ayala Lasso of Ecuador, emphasised building diplomatic links with governments. He travelled widely, but declined to confront governments, publicly or privately, even when systematic violations were apparent.
The challenges before Mrs Robinson will be formidable. First, she must integrate human rights in the overall UN system where they have tended to be marginalised. Human rights programmes receive less than 1 per cent of the UN budget, and those working on these issues within the UN system have become demoralised.
Yet human rights cuts across the work of most UN agencies, including its peacekeeping operations, the work of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and the United Nations Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF). Mrs Robinson will need to use her considerable political skills to keep these issues in focus within the UN itself.
In addition, she will be called upon to provide strong leadership to set clear and focused priorities in the Office of the High Commissioner, which has been weakened by competing demands for staff and resources.
To succeed she will need to restore confidence among the UN's major donors, and to persuade them that to be effective the UN's human rights programmes require greater financial resources. These are needed for new human rights field offices and to strengthen existing human rights procedures.
President Robinson knows well that most refugees are women and young children, and will help remind the world community that too little has been done to protect these vulnerable populations. She will also be able to remind leaders, as she has said, that "there are no inevitable victims" and that "those who today go through a similar trauma, whether it's in Rwanda, or Somalia or even Bosnia, have a right to a future."
Mary Robinson brings a rare blend of skills and experiences to this daunting assignment.