Mrs Mary Robinson, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and former President of Ireland, visited Paris yesterday to receive the European of the Year award at UNESCO. She also had talks with President Chirac.
Mrs Robinson and Mr Chirac made preliminary plans for the December 10th, 1998 commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The High Commissioner told the French President of her recent trips to Cambodia and the Great Lakes region of Central Africa. They also discussed the situation in Algeria, and Mrs Robinson said she was anxious to get more information about it. Algerian officials have several times clashed with her when she attempted to raise the issue, claiming she was infringing Algerian sovereignty.
The European of the Year award is given annually to "a European whose action, work and personality are representative of a specifically European identity". In choosing Mrs Robinson, the international jury of 15 prominent Europeans, presided by Mr Jacques Delors, former President of the European Commission, said it wanted "not only to salute this great European, who represents our shared culture, but also to give her support in the difficult battle she has undertaken in the name of dignity and all human beings".
The award has been given every year since 1987 by La Vie magazine, a Christian news weekly with 1.2 million readers in France. In December, the magazine published an article entitled "Mary Against the Torturers". It put a photograph of Mrs Robinson, taken by Lord Snowdon, on its front cover this week, with the subtitle "Grace and a Firm Hand".
The European Commissioner for Humanitarian Action, Mrs Emma Bonino, won the 1996 award; in 1995 it went to the German Chancellor, Dr Helmut Kohl, and Mr and Mrs John and Pat Hume won the 1994 award for their work for peace in Northern Ireland.
