Why Mary Robinson Fights For Climate Justice

Mary Robinson was the first female President of Ireland, serving from 1990 to 1997. She then served as the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and has since undertaken a variety of roles at the UN system, focusing on human rights, gender equality and, as is the focus of our conversation today, climate justice. 

Mary Robinson and I have an extended conversation about what climate justice means and what it entails--and this was a concept, I admit, that I was unaware of until Mary Robinson began to champion it.    We spoke a couple of weeks ago in Yerevan, Armenia, where Mary Robinson was serving as part of the jury pool to select the winner of this year's Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity. This is an honor that was bestowed on a Rohingya human rights lawyer named Kyaw Hla Ang. And if you want to learn more about the Aurora Prize and the Aurora humanitarian initiative, i'd encourage you to visit AuroraPrize.org. And I should say, I'll have an interview with one of the finalists coming up in the next few weeks.    Mary Robinson and I had a tight 15 minutes between panel sessions at the conference--and I was glad she made time for this interview. I think you'll like it.