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Mary Robinson

Mary Robinson

16 commentaries
5 videos & podcasts

Mary Robinson, a former president of Ireland and former UN high commissioner for human rights, is Chair of The Elders and Chair of the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre’s Advisory Board.

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  1. Climate Justice
    Tutu15_revisted Getty Images

    Climate Justice

    Sep 12, 2022 Desmond Tutu & Mary Robinson lament the rich world's lack progress toward recognizing what it owes climate-vulnerable countries.

  2. Supplying the Green Transition Must Be Fast and Fair
    robinson17_PABLO COZZAGLIOAFP via Getty Images_bolivialithium Pablo Cozzaglio/AFP via Getty Images

    Supplying the Green Transition Must Be Fast and Fair

    May 12, 2022 Mary Robinson emphasizes that efforts to secure key inputs for clean-energy investments must respect human rights.

  3. How to Make the Pandemic History
    kimoon28_Mahmoud HjajAnadolu Agency via Getty Images_covax Mahmoud Hjaj/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

    How to Make the Pandemic History

    Feb 17, 2022 Ban Ki-moon, et al. call for upcoming high-level international meetings to be used to close the ACT-A funding gap.

  4. Climate Accountability Now
    robinson15_Brook MitchellGetty Images_climate justice Brook MitchellGetty Images

    Climate Accountability Now

    Feb 11, 2022 Mary Robinson considers the steps that will be needed to redress the shortcomings of COP26 in Glasgow.

  5. A Human-Rights Approach to Global Challenges
    robinson14_ Mahmoud HjajAnadolu Agency via Getty Images_covax Mahmoud Hjaj/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

    A Human-Rights Approach to Global Challenges

    Jul 13, 2021 Mary Robinson says that a roadmap already exists to help humanity overcome the pandemic and tackle climate change.

  1. carstens5_Getty Images_finternet Getty Images

    The Rise of the Finternet

    Agustín Carstens & Nandan Nilekani foresee a world in which cheap, secure, and near-instantaneous financial transactions are available to all.
  2. rodrik222_Kevin FrayerGetty Images_china solar panel Kevin Frayer/Getty Images

    Don’t Fret About Green Subsidies

    Dani Rodrik sees no good argument against industrial policies that accelerate growth in decarbonization industries.
  3. gros186_Sean GallupGetty Images_euro Sean Gallup/Getty Images

    Europe’s Geoeconomic Competitiveness Challenge

    Daniel Gros highlights the security risks raised by the prolonged decline of the EU’s relative economic power.
  4. op_ang1_retrorocketGetty Images_corruption retrorocket/Getty Images

    How Exceptional Is China’s Crony-Capitalist Boom?

    Yuen Yuen Ang

    While both the American and Chinese Gilded Ages raised material standards of living for hundreds of millions of people, their endemic corruption produced radically unequal and unsustainable growth. Ultimately, both periods offer cautionary tales about unbridled crony capitalism, not models for blind emulation.

    explains how corruption both drove the country's GDP growth and sowed the seeds for its current economic problems.
  5. bp india election Photo by SAJJAD HUSSAIN/AFP via Getty Images

    Will India’s Election Destroy Its Democracy?

    Since taking power in 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his ruling Bharatiya Janata Party have stoked Hindu nationalism, hollowed out India’s democracy, and overseen an economy that is probably performing far worse than official figures suggest. And yet Modi and the BJP are genuinely popular, making them likely – though not certain – to emerge victorious when the ongoing parliamentary election concludes in June.

  6. benami213_YEHUDA RAIZNERAFP via Getty Images_israelflag Yehuda Raizner/AFP via Getty Images

    The Unbearable Lightness of Anti-Zionism

    Shlomo Ben-Ami warns that demonizing all Israelis will only make peace less likely – though that may be the point.
  7. alfredsdottir1_Getty Images_pay gap Getty Images

    How to Close the Gender Wage Gap

    Lilja Dögg Alfreðsdóttir argues that Iceland’s experience lends further support to Nobel laureate economist Claudia Goldin’s research.
  8. brown107_Jeff J Mitchell - Pool Getty Images_covidvaccine Jeff J. Mitchell/Pool/Getty Images

    Getting the Pandemic Treaty Across the Finish Line

    Gordon Brown hopes negotiations will conclude this month, and pushes back on a last-minute wave of misinformation.
  9. singer231_Michael M. SantiagoGetty Images_college protests Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

    When Is Criticism of Israel Anti-Semitic?

    Peter Singer rejects comparisons of the recent US campus protests to the actions of Nazi student groups in the 1930s.

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