Everybody Matters

The compelling memoir of one of the world’s most remarkable women: the first female president of Ireland and former UN high commissioner for human rights.

One of the most inspiring women of our age, Mary Robinson has spent her life in pursuit of a fairer world, becoming a powerful and influential voice for human rights around the globe. With a gift for storytelling and remembrance, Robinson reveals, in Everybody Matters, what lies behind the vision and determination that made her path to prominence as compelling as any of her achievements.

Born in 1944 into a deeply Catholic family—the only girl among five children—she was poised to become a nun before finding her own true voice. Ever since, she has challenged convention in pursuit of fairness—first, as an activist lawyer, winning landmark cases advancing the causes of women and marginalized people, then as a senator promoting progressive legislation, including the legalizing of contraception. In 1990, she shocked the political system by winning election as Ireland’s first woman president, redefining the role and putting Ireland firmly on the international stage. In her subsequent role as UN high commissioner for human rights she won acclaim for bringing attention to victims worldwide but was often frustrated both by the bureaucracy and by the willingness to compromise on principle, which reveal the deep and inherent barriers to changing the status quo. Now back in Ireland and heading her Mary Robinson Foundation—Climate Justice, she has found the independence she needs to work effectively on behalf of the millions of poor around the world most affected by climate change.

Told with the conviction and modest pride that has guided her life, Everybody Matters will inspire all who read it to believe that each of us can, in our way, help change the world for the better.

Mary Robinson served as the seventh, and first female, president of Ireland from 1990 to 1997, and as the United Nations high commissioner for human rights from 1997 to 2002. Robinson has been honorary president of Oxfam International since 2002, and is a member of the Elders, an independent group of global leaders brought together by Nelson Mandela. She is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Indira Gandhi and Sydney Peace Prizes. She has been chancellor of Dublin University since 1998, and is president of the Mary Robinson Foundation–Climate Justice. She and her husband, Nick Robinson, live in Dublin and Mayo.