Mary Robinson urges U.S. to sign Declaration of Human Rights

By Blaine P. Friedlander Jr.

In the course of human events, one truth is self-evident: The United States government should acknowledge, sign and participate in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, said Mary Robinson, the former president of Ireland, in a keynote address at the workshop "Ethics, Globalization and Hunger: In Search of Appropriate Policies" held at Cornell on Nov. 18.

Former President of Ireland and former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson chats with Per Pinstrup-Anderson, Cornell's H.E. Babcock Professor of Food, Nutrition and Public Policy, at a press conference held at the A.D. White House on Nov. 18. Frank DiMeo/University Photography

Robinson explained that since the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the United Nations in 1948, the right to adequate food has been recognized as a central component to an adequate standard of living. She said this right was most recently supported at the Rome World Food Summit in June 2002.

The United States has yet to sign the declaration. "Essentially, the right to food obligates governments to ensure that adequate food is available, either through domestic production or trade," she said. "Governments must ensure that all people ... have access to food and that access is not conditional on one's relative wealth, social status, or nationality ... The right to food does not mean handing out free food to everyone."

Cornell President Jeffrey Lehman and Per Pinstrup-Andersen, Cornell's H.E. Babcock Professor of Food, Nutrition and Public Policy, introduced Robinson to a packed Call Auditorium in Kennedy Hall. In her talk, Robinson illustrated the dire problems she witnessed from her trip to Somalia during her presidency.

"I sat beside women whose children were dying and children whose mothers were dying. As a mother I felt the sheer horror of that," she said. "But as the head of a country that was once devastated by famine while vast quantities of food were shipped abroad, I also felt the terrible and helpless irony that this could actually be happening again. ... It's on our watch."

The problem with hunger is not just hunger. Hunger is intertwined with other global challenges, such health epidemics and the germination of terrorism and war. Robinson explained: "Perhaps the most difficult is the fight against HIV and AIDS. The interconnections between AIDS and hunger can be seen most starkly in Africa. Infection rates are rising among African women. Almost 60 percent of those living with AIDS in Africa are women, and they are also 80 percent of Africa's small farmers," she said. "Women have traditionally been able to help their families and communities most in times of food crisis. But the toll taken by AIDS makes this task increasingly difficult."

Pinstrup-Andersen applauded Robinson's ideas about the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. He said: "The United States should respect the Universal Declaration and the U.S. government should sign that declaration."