Latest Mary Robinson Quotes from Interviews

Quotes about:

• A lot of young people are very cynical about the political framework because they see the countries that preach democracy and human rights being countries largely responsible for the problems in their region.

  Mary Robinson

  Country, People, Cynical

  "Condoleezza Rice: Institutions Aren't Perfect, But They're The Bedrock Of Democracy". "Morning Edition" with Rachel Martin, www.npr.org. May 8, 2017.

• The corporate sector per se is bottom-line oriented. It can be very corrupt and it is not very principled. That is why I don't think it is sufficient just to have voluntary codes of behavior. I am in favor of legislation which helps to ensure that there is an even playing field and rewards those who play by the rules.

  Mary Robinson

  Thinking, Play, Lines

  Source: www.egonzehnder.com

• You can convene a wider cross-section if you have no turf to defend, because then you don't cut across anyone else's agenda and you can achieve a great deal.

  Mary Robinson

  Cutting, Agendas, Achieve

  Source: www.egonzehnder.com

• The UN may not be very effective but I am a fan of the idea of the United Nations. I have been there, I know the problems. To parody Winston Churchill: It is the worst system, except we don't have any other.

  Mary Robinson

  Ideas, Fans, May

  Source: www.egonzehnder.com

• When we see companies who are in complicit relationships with China, for example, making huge profits by providing China with the very software that enables the state to censor its own people, that is not acceptable. We need to engage with such companies to make their responsibilities clear.

  Mary Robinson

  Responsibility, People, Example

  Source: www.egonzehnder.com

• I want to see a UN that enables a gathering of energies in which business plays its proper role.

  Mary Robinson

  Play, Energy, Gathering

  Source: www.egonzehnder.com

• Companies should increasingly see themselves as major corporate citizens with a wider responsibility to the community. Nothing less than their reputation - their image - is at stake.

  Mary Robinson

  Responsibility, Community, Citizens

  Source: www.egonzehnder.com

• If the Chinese business community takes the Declaration of Human Rights, core labor standards, and environmental standards seriously, the government of China will take them far more seriously, too.

  Mary Robinson

  Rights, Government, Community

  Source: www.egonzehnder.com

• Particularly here in the United States there is a lack of comprehension about anything to do with the United Nations.

  Mary Robinson

  United States, United Nations, Comprehension

  Source: www.egonzehnder.com

• We need to be prepared to have multi-stakeholder, well-managed partnerships. That can be very effective. We saw this happen at international level with the UN Convention on Landmines, for example, where some governments didn't want to go forward, but enough governments did and with them many NGOs. At international level we need to see this as the 21st century way of doing things.

  Mary Robinson

  Government, Example, Needs

  Source: www.egonzehnder.com

• There are some parts of the business world, in my judgment, that are actually trying to ensure that the U.S. does not take on board the preponderance of arguments for global warming, and that is something I am really very concerned about.

  Mary Robinson

  Trying, Doe, Boards

  Source: www.egonzehnder.com

• There are numerous issues that governments used to deal with that they now no longer deal with to the same extent: Prisons have been privatized in a number of countries; education and health are becoming privatized. Governments don't have the capacity to deliver - or not in isolation.

  Mary Robinson

  Country, Government, Numbers

  Source: www.egonzehnder.com

• The governments are seen to be less effective than they used to be. The private sector is perceived as being so much more efficient, and so globalization implies a transfer of power to the private sector.

  Mary Robinson

  Government, Globalization, Used

  Source: www.egonzehnder.com

• To make progress we have to build a multi-stakeholder process, harnessing the appropriate energies.

  Mary Robinson

  Progress, Energy, Process

  Source: www.egonzehnder.com

• If we want to make progress in key areas now, we have to build a multi-stakeholder process, harnessing the appropriate energies. So not only the politicians but also business, the wider civil society, and the trade union movement all have a contribution to make, whether it is at national or at international level.

  Mary Robinson

  Keys, Progress, Energy

  Source: www.egonzehnder.com

• The United Nations is actually a mid-20th century institution and much weaker than it was when it was originally created, because governments themselves are less capable of implementing the kind of promises or programs that they have put forward.

  Mary Robinson

  Government, Promise, Kind

  Source: www.egonzehnder.com

• There is a democratic deficit. In Latin America in particular there is real concern that democratic governments are not delivering and that is leading to experimenting with different models that are much less democratic. But even in Western Europe the deficit is a problem.

  Mary Robinson

  Real, Latin, Government

  Source: www.egonzehnder.com

• Democratic governments are not delivering on their promises, which is partly due to the fact that governments are less powerful than they were after the Second World War. There were fewer governments then, but they actually had more political power.

  Mary Robinson

  Powerful, War, Government

  Source: www.egonzehnder.com

• I can see the immense capacity of business to give leadership.

  Mary Robinson

  Giving, Capacity, Immense

  Source: www.egonzehnder.com

• I'm struck by how very few people outside a rarefied world of true believers understand what you mean when you say human rights - that includes development experts and economists who are very keen to implement the UN Millennium Development Goals. They've told me quite frankly, that they don't know exactly what a human rights approach is.

  Mary Robinson

  Mean, Rights, People

  Source: www.opendemocracy.net

• Post-genocide Rwanda has managed to implement a good universal health insurance scheme that covers a large proportion of the population. This came about because of the severity of the country's problems and the resulting high proportion of women in the parliament and among professional caregivers, which had a positive effect on policy.

  Mary Robinson

  Country, Population, Caregivers

  Source: www.who.int

• Finance ministers must realize that the health budget can save them money if it's applied well.

  Mary Robinson

  Realizing, Finance, Ministers

  Source: www.who.int

• One of the richest countries in the world - the United States of America - is facing a real ethical dilemma in terms of providing equitable access to health care.

  Mary Robinson

  Country, Real, America

  Source: www.who.int

• We need a more holistic approach in which we take account of society's most vulnerable sectors. We shouldn't just do broad averaging of country statistics but rather we need to disaggregate the data to determine where the resources are most needed. In most cases, it's usually the reverse: those who are most marginalized - minorities and rural and remote communities - get the least attention and money.

  Mary Robinson

  Country, Data, Community

  Source: www.who.int

• If you are small and don't particularly want credit for what you are doing, you can achieve a lot.

  Mary Robinson

  Doing You, Credit, Want

  Source: www.who.int