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UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson won plaudits for her successful seven year presidency of Ireland. Developments weighs up her chances of reaching the same balance between modernisation and reconciliation in her new job.
When she became the first woman president of Ireland in 1990, the 45-year-old mother of three acknowledged the shock at her surprise victory. "The hand that rocks the cradle has rocked the system," she told the audience at her inauguration address. Yet far from adding to the divisions within Ireland, the former civil liberties lawyer became a force for reconciliation and modernity within this emerging 'Celtic Tiger'.

Over her seven-year tenure, her quiet passion for reconciliation was most evocatively symbolised by the light she lit in the window of her residence, Aras Un Uachtararain, as a sign to the Irish diasporo that the mother country remembered them. Practical evidence could be found in her efforts to help bring peace to Northern Ireland which won the respect of communities on both side of the divide. Whether taking tea with the Queen, ending a 70-year stand-off between the two heads of state, or sporting a red ribbon for those with HIV, Mrs Robinson was never afraid to break with tradition in pursuit of her beliefs. When she announced her decision to quit the presidency the-Irish prime minister John Bruton described her as "the best ever." He added: "She symbolised the modernisation of Ireland."

In September Mrs Robinson left Ireland to take up her new role as UN Human Rights Commissioner, A high-profile post which will see her dividing her time between New York and Geneva, juggling the internal politics of the UN with a resolute response to the very changing international situation as part of her responsibility for the human rights activities of the organisation.

While human right groups have welcomed the new commissioner, it will be interesting to see how long she will remain in their good books. One of her main task will be to marry the expectations of the West with what a number of developing world governments see as unfair demands. Another will be to broaden the rights agenda to include the basic needs such as health, education, and clean water, as well as promoting democracy and the rights to freedom of association and speech.

However, Mrs Robinson has built her career on getting things done. She has an impressive humanitarian affairs background, both desk bound, such as an in-depth knowledge of human rights law, or on-the-ground: she was the first head of state to visit Rwanda after the genocide. She also comes from the nation with a recent history of the very human rights crises her organisation will find itself touching upon: civil war, displacement, poverty, starvation. This in itself must surely add to the "fire in the belly" that Secretary General Kofi Annan described as one of her best qualifications for the job.

"I think I have a way of being in touch with what really matters," Mrs Robinson said before she left Switzerland. "I have a sense because of that, I moving but not leaving. I am moving out of Ireland, but all my focus points will relate to my last seven years as president."

This sense of continuity has served Mrs Robinson well. Each stage of her career seems to have been built firmly on the foundation of its predecessor. Who knows..... if she makes a success of the Human Rights post, at 52 she could not be ruled out as future contender for Secretary General. Certainly Mr Annan seems to think she's up to her new job: "I was going to use the word 'superstar', But I didn't want to embarrass her," he told reporters after her appointment.