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Fulbright Association
1100 G Street, N.W.
Suite 525
Washington, D.C. 20005
Phone: (202) 347-5543
Fax: (202) 347-6540 |
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Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and
Public Affairs Evelyn S. Lieberman Pays Tribute to
High Commissioner Robinson |
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| Note: Evelyn S. Lieberman was sworn in as the first under secretary of state
for public diplomacy and public affairs on Oct. 1, 1999. The new under
secretary position was created as a result of the reorganization of foreign
affairs agencies which merged the United States Information Agency with the
Department of State. Under Secretary Lieberman, Ronald J. Ross, M.D.,
then-president of the Fulbright Association, and Donald R. Greene,
then-president of the Coca-Cola Foundation, conducted the ceremony honoring Mary
Robinson. |
| High Commissioner Robinson, Mr. Greene, Dr. Ross, distinguished guests, thank
you for joining us here today at the State Department for the presentation of
the 1999 J. William Fulbright Prize for International Understanding. My name is
Evelyn Lieberman, and I am under secretary of state for public diplomacy and
public affairs. In that position, which I have held now for exactly one week,
my responsibilities include oversight of the thousands of Fulbright scholarships
granted each year. My responsibilities also include sometimes having the
opportunity to meet and talk to people I’ve read about and admired for years.
This is definitely one of those fine occasions. The Fulbright Program is the
largest and best-known component of American public diplomacy. This past year,
the United States provided nearly $100 million to enable more than 4,500
American and foreign teachers, scholars, students, and specialists to study and
teach and conduct research in more than 140 countries around the world. |
| The most successful exchange program in history, the Fulbright Program has
helped bring together and promote better understanding among individuals,
cultures, and even nations. With greater international understanding comes the
appreciation that beyond race, creed, and nationality, what we all have in
common is more fundamental than our differences. Although these shared values
are as old as history, it was only a little more than 50 years ago that the
world came together to try to identify and codify these values as international
standards. The result was the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which to
this day continues to serve as common ground in a fragmented world.
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| As recent events in East Timor, Kosovo, and Sierra Leone have demonstrated, we
have not yet fulfilled the Declaration’s promise that “all human beings are born
free and equal in dignity and rights.” But such a sober admission does not
preclude our recognizing the tremendous progress we have made. Each day,
throughout the world, courageous men, women, and children speak out boldly on
behalf of the powerless. One of the most significant of those voices is Mary
Robinson, the woman we honor here today. |
| For Mary Robinson, the quest for human rights is not a vague ideal, but rather
an urgent, practical mission. From her days as a young senator campaigning on
behalf of the rights of women in Ireland, through her term as Ireland’s most
progressive — and most popular — president, to her efforts in her current role,
Mrs. Robinson has been a champion of those in need. Regardless of place,
culture, or circumstance, she has demanded that governments honor in fact what
they embrace in principle. She has worked skillfully to promote greater public
understanding of fundamental human rights, and in the process pushing the world
to pay attention, to tell the truth, and to live up to its own values. Mrs.
Robinson has said that her own approach to human rights is based on “an inner
sense of justice.” As high commissioner, she has translated that inner sense of
justice into a compelling vision of a world transformed by respect for human
rights. As she has noted, anything less than universal adherence to the basic
principles of human rights would diminish “our capacity to transmit these values
to succeeding generations.” |
| I look forward to working with Mrs. Robinson to identify ways we can use public
diplomacy to advance and promote human rights, particularly in the field of
human rights education.
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| If we want to make this a better world, we must support those who dare to speak
out in the face of hatred. We must encourage those who dare to tell the truth
in the face of lies. That ultimately is what international understanding is all
about. And that is what Mary Robinson has brought to her work as high
commissioner. |
| Thank you for your extraordinary efforts to break down the barriers that divide
mankind. |
| See also: |
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