PRESS RELEASE
EMBARGO 6.00pm, Tuesday 14th September 2010
Mary Robinson establishes a new Foundation to ensure human rights
are at the heart of the climate change agenda
Mary Robinson is returning to live and work in Ireland at the end of 2010. She has
established the Mary Robinson Foundation, a non-profit company limited by
guarantee with charitable status under Irish law. The Foundation is governed by a
Board of Trustees and has a distinguished International Advisory Council to help
guide its development.
The Foundation will be located in Dublin within the Innovation Academy of the
Universities established by Trinity College Dublin (TCD) and University College
Dublin (UCD). Both Universities have nominated two representatives to sit on the
Board of Trustees of the Foundation.
The Foundation will focus its initial activities primarily on climate justice so the
business name Mary Robinson Foundation - Climate Justice (MRFCJ) is being
used. It will work to foster Irish and international leadership on issues of climate
change and sustainable development and promote climate justice and equity.
The MRFCJ will be a centre for thought leadership, advocacy and education on one of
the major challenges of the 21st Century: how to ensure the sustainable development
of the poorest countries despite the negative impacts of climate change, which are
caused or aggravated by the greenhouse gas emissions of industrialized countries, and
emerging economies, as they develop.
In announcing the establishment Mary Robinson said:
“To effectively address climate change, we need the participation of all people
everywhere with fair, accountable, transparent, and corruption-free
procedures and innovative approaches to green technologies. There is a need
to create awareness, through leadership and education, that the dynamics of
development and of relations between peoples in different parts of the world
must change profoundly. Ireland is well placed to play a leadership role in
this area.”
The Foundation will be funded by private donations and has secured support from
philanthropic organisations including the Rockefeller, Nduna and Skoll Foundations
in the USA, the One Foundation in Ireland and Virgin Unite.
Mary Robinson will work with the Foundation on a pro-bono basis, as will her former
Special Adviser Bride Rosney who will be the Foundation’s Acting CEO. Bride
Rosney was Director of Communications with RTÉ from 2002 to her retirement in
2009.
Dr. Tara Shine will join the Foundation as Head of Research and Development in
January 2011. She has worked as a technical adviser on environment, development
and climate change issues for over 12 years. Much of her work has been carried out
in developing countries resulting in an acute understanding of the issues and
challenges faced by governments, research organisations and the non-governmental
sectors in combating poverty, environmental degradation and climate change.
Dr Shine is a member of the Consultative Group of Experts (CGE) of the United
Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The CGE provides
support and advice to Non-Annex 1 (developing) countries to assist them in
preparing their national communications on climate change. She has been a member
of the Irish Delegation to the UNFCCC since 2003 and has negotiated on behalf of
the EU. She is a member of the EU Expert Group on Adaptation which feeds into the
UNFCCC process, and the Irish Impacts and Adaptation Steering Group which
advises on research and policy in the area of adaptation to climate change.
MRFCJ is working on its first project - focussing on the development of Women’s
Leadership and Climate Justice leading to COP 16 in Cancun, Mexico at the end of
2010. Cancun follows on from COP 15 in Copenhagen and COP 17 in South Africa
will in turn follow it in 2011. As part of this project MRFCJ will co-host a meeting on
Women’s Leadership and Climate Justice in New York later this week. This is
indicative of how MRFCJ will work, as a Foundation located in Ireland, to have
impact worldwide, particularly in the poorest of the poor regions.
Ends/
Contact: Bride Rosney.
Mobile: 087 2440490; email: bride.rosney@mrfcj.org
Editor’s Notes:
The TCD / UCD Innovation Alliance is a radical partnership which will work
with the education sector, the Irish Government and its agencies and the business and
venture capital communities to develop a world-class ecosystem for innovation that
will drive enterprise development and the creation of sustainable high value jobs. One
of the Alliance’s major components is a new 4th level Innovation Academy which
will define and mainstream innovation as the 3rd arm of the university mission
alongside education and research.
Board of Trustees
Tom Arnold - CEO of Concern Worldwide
Frank Convery – Director of the Environmental Systems Institute, UCD
Conor Gearty - Professor of Human Rights Law, London School of Economics
Jane Grimson - Director of Centre for Health Informatics, TCD
John Healy - Adjunct Professor, Centre for Non-profit Management, TCD, and
former CEO of The Atlantic Philanthropies
Hadeel Ibrahim - Executive Director, Mo Ibrahim Foundation
Irene Khan - former Secretary General of Amnesty
Brigid Laffan - Principal of the College of Human Sciences, UCD
Mary Robinson – who will act as Chair of the Board of Trustees
International Advisory Council
Members of the initial International Advisory Council include
Richard C. Blum - Chair of the University of California Board of Regents
Richard Branson - industrialist
Gro Harlem Brundtland - former D-G of the World Health Organisation
Al Gore - Nobel Peace Prize laureate
Vartan Gregorian - President of Carnegie Corporation of New York
Musimbi Kanyoro - formerly General Secretary of the World YWCA
Jeff Sachs - Director of The Earth Institute, Columbia University
Jeff Skoll - founder of the Skoll Foundation which supports social entrepreneurship
Camilla Toulmin - Director of the International Institute for Environment &
Development
Margot Wallstrom – UN Secretary General’s Special Representative on Sexual
Violence in Conflict, former First Vice-President of the European Commission