Former President Mary Robinson To Speak In New York

Mary Robinson, the first female Irish President and former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights will speak in the Friends Seminary Meetinghouse on Wednesday, February 11 at 7pm.

Robinson's talk is part of Friends Seminary's Peace Week 2009,  which features speakers who elucidate and weigh in on issues relevant to the fundamental Quaker testimony of peace.

The week, which runs from February 9 to February 13, also features a variety of community service events, activities, and classroom projects that students and members of the Friends community will undertake in their exploration of peace.

With a long history of commitment to the rights of all people, Robinson's achievements epitomize the theme of Peace Week 2009, "In the Presence of Justice: The Politics of Peace."

As an academic, a legislator and barrister, Robinson used law, and ultimately justice, as an instrument for social change, arguing landmark cases before the European Court of Human Rights, the Irish courts and the European Court in Luxembourg.

Peace and justice were also hallmark themes during her widely-praised tenure as President of Ireland from 1990 to 1997 and as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights from 1997 to 2002.

She now leads 'Realizing Rights: The Ethical Globalization Initiative', an organization working to ensure that the needs and rights of the poor are addressed globally.

In addition to Robinson, Linda Biehl, co-founder and director of the Amy Biehl Foundation in the U.S. and the Amy Biehl Foundation Trust in South Africa, will speak in the Meetinghouse on Wednesday, February 11, about her daughter Amy's life and death in South Africa.

Amy Biehl was a 1993 Stanford graduate who, while on a Fulbright to study the role of women and gender rights in South Africa, was killed by a group of young black South Africans who were fighting to end apartheid.

The four men, who were convicted of the killing, were ultimately released through South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

The Biehl family, in the spirit of their daughter's fight for human rights, did not oppose amnesty, but rather offered their support for their daughter's killers and challenged them to join with them in continuing Amy's work.