No one ever said it was going to be easy. If Mary Robinson ever does take a rest - and it isn't clear that she does - she may this week reflect on the end of an eventful, if somewhat disappointing, first year as United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

As she travels to China and Tibet, and the biggest challenge yet for the world's main defender of human rights, she is likely to look back on the past year as a hard apprenticeship in the shark-infested waters of international politics.

Robinson brought with her a reputation as an inspirational and eloquent head of state, and a brilliant lawyer with a track record in fighting human rights abuses. But the organisation she inherited in Geneva was sclerotic, wasteful and at war with itself.

A year later the High Commissioner has left in her wake a trail of angry and affronted despots, and not a few peeved UN diplomats. She has raised the profile of human rights and streamlined her organisation. But for the most part the world continues to be an unsafe place for those who stand up for their rights. The butchers continue to butcher, the thugs are still at their thuggery and the UN - on a good day - is still passing motions. "How much can one person do? She needs the political support of governments around the world, but far too often this hasn't been forthcoming," says Martin McPherson, the senior Amnesty International official dealing with the UN.

Several times during the year Robinson has played poker with hostile governments and lost. In July her field office pulled out of Rwanda after negotiations broke down with the government on the renewal of its mandate. The Rwandan mission was a flagship operation, at one time employing more than 80 people.

Throughout the year Robinson has enjoyed a mutually supportive relationship with the UN secretary general, Kofi Annan. Most observers say her biggest error came early on, when she tried to tackle the Algerian regime over its failure to act on human rights abuses. Robinson described the violence there as "intolerable" and said there was "a terrible problem of human rights" in the country.

The Algerians, used to fending off such criticism, went into overdrive. Their ambassador to the UN accused her of overstepping the boundaries of her mandate and of attacking the "honour and dignity" of his country's institutions.

The diplomatic row achieved little, except to paint Mrs Robinson firmly into the Western corner, as Arab states rallied around one of their own. There were other stand-offs, all with developing countries. The Iranian President snubbed the High Commissioner by refusing to meet her during her visit. The Cambodian Prime Minister responded angrily to her criticism of abuses in that country. Mrs Robinson quickly earned the reputation of a least-wanted dinner guest among the more despotic regimes of the world.

"It's true she has been criticised as not being as attentive to diplomatic politesse but that's just her style," says the UNHCHR press officer, Jose Luis Diaz.

"I'm aware of being an uncomfortable presence in many places but when I cease to be that, I won't be doing my job," Mrs Robinson is reported as saying recently.

"In any case, what has the so-called right way of doing things achieved for human rights over the past 50 years?" Mr Diaz asks.

One Geneva observer says Robinson's real successes lie in the area of internal reform. "She has been remarkably active here, making new appointments, implementing the reform process and reviewing treaty monitoring bodies. Co-ordination has been improved within the organisation and the rationale for the field operations has been strengthened."

Another triumph has been the agreement on a declaration to protect human rights defenders. This measure, which was logjammed for 13 years until Robinson took up the cause, will be signed at a high-profile ceremony in New York next December, on the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

McPherson says she has succeeded in emphasising the importance of economic and social rights, and the right to development. But the impact of this rhetoric in developing countries has been offset by their perception that she is more likely to target them for human rights abuses than the West.

Thus, when the US bombed Sudan and Afghanistan recently, there was no comment from the High Commissioner.