Former President of Ireland Mary Robinson has been awarded
with the Royal Scottish Geographical Society’s Livingstone Medal at Scotland’s International Climate Justice
Conference on 9th October at Edinburgh’s
Dynamic Earth.
The Livingstone Medal is one of the Society’s most
prestigious medals, awarded for outstanding public service in which geography
has played an important part and where its principles have been applied to the
benefit of the human race.
Mary Robinson served as the President of the Republic of Ireland from 1990 until 1997, when she
became UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. Robinson now works tirelessly to
promote human rights, and the rights of the world’s most underdeveloped
countries.
Robinson has become one of the world’s most admired and
active human right’s campaigners. She leads The Mary Robinson Foundation - Climate Justice
(MRFCJ). MRFCJ is a centre for thought leadership,
education and advocacy on the struggle to secure global justice for those
people vulnerable to the impacts of climate change who are usually forgotten -
the poor, the disempowered and the marginalised across the world.
Scotland
was the first country in the world to establish its own Climate Justice Fund,
and Mary Robinson supported its development. Climate Justice links human rights
and development to achieve a human-centred approach, safeguarding the rights of
the most vulnerable and sharing the burdens and benefits of climate change and
its resolution equitably and fairly.
The
RSGS’s Livingstone Medal has been awarded since 1901, with previous recipients
including Sir David Attenborough, Ernest Shackleton, Michael Palin, HRH The
Princess Royal and Medicines sans Frontiers.
The
Livingstone Medal is named for the explorer and anti slavery campaigner Sir
David Livingstone, whose Bicentenary has been celebrated this year. His
daughter, Agnes Livingstone Bruce, was one of the founders of the Royal
Scottish Geographical Society.
Robinson
was delivering a talk at the Climate Justice Conference titled The
Global Climate Justice Challenge. The award was presented by RSGS Chief
Executive Mike Robinson. She was previously awarded honorary Fellowship of the
Royal Scottish Geographical Society at an event in Dundee last December.
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