Mary Robinson

Mary Robinson is a founding member of The Elders. She was the first woman President of Ireland from 1990–1997 and a former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights between 1997–2002. From 2013 and 2016, she served as the UN Secretary General’s Special Envoy in three roles; first for the Great Lakes region of Africa, then on Climate Change until the historic Paris Agreement on Climate Change in 2015 and then as Special Envoy on El Niño and Climate. Mary Robinson is known for her work bridging the gap between the climate change and human rights communities and for championing a rights-based approach to seeking climate justice. She is passionate about the need to establish grassroots women’s leadership and participation as a cornerstone of gender-responsive climate policy and believes in an intergenerational, intersectional approach tackling the greatest challenges facing humanity.