On the morning of Tuesday June 23rd, Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee and Human Rights Sub-committee held a joint meeting, in the presence of Mary Robinson, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, to mark the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The meeting was also addressed by Commissioner Emma Bonino, and chaired by John Cushnahan MEP, vice-chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee.
Mary Robinson outlined the priorities she had set for herself as High Commissioner for Human rights:
a greater focus on "field operations"(most recently in Kosovo);
support for "national capacity building"(training in human rights issues for staff of national military and police forces and the judiciary);
and a better balance between civil and political rights, on the one hand, and economic, social and cultural rights on the other.
She insisted firmly on this last point, saying she was not soft on the first group of rights but she was even tougher on the second. This would be her attitude on forthcoming visit to China, during which she certainly intended to got to Tibet.
