Strategic Initiatives

Ethical Globalization Initiative (EGI)

Established in October, 2002, the Ethical Globalization Initiative (EGI) was founded by Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. A Personal Statement by Mrs. Robinson to representatives of the international press corps in Geneva on September 10, 2002 announced her plans. Realizing Rights: EGI was created as a partnership between the Aspen Institute (US), State of the World Forum (US) and the International Council on Human Rights Policy (Switzerland).

The mission of EGI was to promote a rights-based approach to critical global challenges. After an intensive consultative process in late 2002 and 2003 with a range of experts and global leaders, including a gathering of the Steering Committee at the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization in New Have, CT on January 14-15, 2003 with Ernesto Zedillo, Director of the Center; a first meeting of the Human Rights Policy Action Group at the Wye River Conference Center in Maryland on March 12- 13, 2003; and a second meeting of the Human Rights Policy Action Group in Aspen, Colorado on July 23-24, 2003, EGI announced the three issue areas it would address in 2004 and onward:

1) promoting more equitable trade and development policy;
2) promoting the realization of the right to health, especially responses to the HIV/AIDS pandemic; and
3) promoting a more human international migration policy. At the beginning of its operational phase in 2004, EGI established a formal advisory board and advisory council and formed a new partnership with the Earth Institute at Columbia University, the third partner in addition to the Aspen Institute and the International Council for Human Rights Policy.

With a head office in New York, EGI also opened offices in Geneva, Washington, DC, and Dublin. EGI’s major activities in 2003 and 2004 included a high level meeting with the World Bank and New York University entitled "Human Rights and Development: Towards Mutual Reinforcement," two meetings in partnership with the Center for the Study of AIDS at the University of Pretoria, South Africa and other partners on increasing access to prevention and treatment for women for HIV/AIDS, a series of meetings with senior pharmaceutical company representatives on the right to health, and a major meeting on global poverty with leaders from diverse sectors.

The Ethical Globalization Initiative became its own organization and is now called Realizing Rights: Ethical Globalization Initiative. For additional information and updates, please visit their website.