About Us

Please note: This organization ceased operation in December 2010.
This website remains live as an archive of the work of the organization during its eight years of operation.

Realizing Rights was founded in October 2002 by Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland (1990 - 1997) and former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (1997 - 2002). From 2002 to 2010, Realizing Rights worked with a range of partners on diverse projects and initiatives. Our mission was to put human rights standards at the heart of global governance and policy-making and to ensure that the needs of the poorest and most vulnerable are addressed on the global stage.

In collaboration with, The Aspen Institute, Columbia University and the International Council on Human Rights Policy, we were committed to convening key stakeholders in new alliances to integrate concepts of human rights, gender equality and enhanced accountability into efforts to address global challenges and governance shortcomings.

Realizing Rights played a special role as Catalyst, Convener and Communicator.

We harnessed civil society, government, business, and economic forums to build awareness for our select issues of concern. We facilitated dialogues and relationships between decision makers and key stakeholders, particularly those most marginalized, to arrive at more transparent, ethical and responsible policies and joint actions to achieve change. We developed specific policy recommendations and sought to communicate our findings to key decision makers and the wider public.

We identified five critical global challenges to address:

Fostering Equitable Trade and Decent Work

International trade policies must be designed to give greater attention to the rights of those who have been most excluded from the potential benefits of an increasingly globalized economy.

Realizing Rights promotes greater understanding and changes at the policy level to encourage trade and investment that has a positive impact on development and human rights, especially the right to decent work opportunities in the agricultural sector in Africa.

Realizing the Right to Health

Addressing disparities in access to basic health care is one of the most urgent challenges of our time.

Realizing Rights focuses on cultivating political leadership and developing new tools of accountability at all levels to ensure increased access to health care services, particularly in Africa. We promote innovative policy actions in areas such as health workforce capacity, health financing, donor assistance for health and women's health.

Shaping more Humane Migration Policies

Migration is the human face of globalization. A global economy encourages - and often requires - the free movement of labor. But opportunities to migrate, and human rights protections, for those who do, have not kept pace with this change.

Realizing Rights seeks to address the challenges of health worker migration, and the relationship between migration and development.

Women Leaders Intercultural Forum

Women have achieved positions of influence in all areas of life, but their individual and collective voices could be leveraged more strategically to promote greater human security for all.

Realizing Rights supports the Women Leaders Intercultural Forum and other endeavours that strengthen women's leadership. At all levels, this will facilitate greater collective action to increase global security, and increase the participation of women in global policy forums.

Encouraging Corporate Responsibility

With power comes responsibility. The growing influence of the private sector makes it more important than ever to ensure that businesses live up to their responsibilities for respecting human rights and contributing to equitable and sustainable development worldwide.

Realizing Rights works with the UN Global Compact, the UN Special Representative on Business and Human Rights, the Business Leaders Initiative on Human Rights and other efforts to put human rights squarely on the CR agenda.