THE office of United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights is under five years old.
What Mary Robinson will bring to it first is a more visible profile so that people will take notice of it. In more substantial terms, the exact role of the office has to be developed. It will be up to her to develop a repertoire of activities.
These would include, for example, giving technical assistance to governments to enable them to monitor and enforce observance of human rights; it would involve setting up an international network of human rights monitors around the world; and it would also involve a much more sophisticated and effective investigative capacity.
Where allegations are made, we have to be able to find out what is going on. Then there is the question of advocacy. She will have to choose where and when to take to the pulpit, but what is absolutely crucial is that she must be seen to be consistent. She must apply the same standards in similar situations.
In the area of human rights, we see too much of double standards and cynicism. How to make demarches, going to a government or any sort of authority, and intervening with constructive proposals - this, too, is important, and her established stature should help her.
Is there a human rights problem in the world? Let me say that Mary Robinson has her job cut out for the rest of eternity. It is a huge challenge.
Our civilisation has developed in all sorts of ways, but the way we treat each other, the way we manage resources and diversity, and the way we distribute wealth have not improved very much.
Human rights problems tend to occur in societies which do not have genuine, functioning democratic cultures.
It is the democratic process that makes it possible to mediate and manage resources. When one looks at specific practices - torture, the treatment of minorities such as women and children - they do not tend to be confined to one region of the world.
There has been progress in one respect: the standards upon which we are all to be judged have been developed enormously since the second World War.
Nevertheless, the task remaining is simply enormous. It is only in recent years we have seen the abuses in Rwanda, former Yugoslavia and now we are hearing about the Congo.
So it is not the standards or common understanding that is lacking but the bringing to book, the enforcing in a way that is consistent and therefore credible. That is where the High Commissioner comes in.
I do not know Mary Robinson, but I have admired her from a distance. Her career before she because President of Ireland involved much human rights work.
When she became President, part of her work on the international scene was her devotion to human rights worldwide.
So she has the background and the commitment. Now she has the job.
She is just a superb, an excellent choice.