Amsterdam - The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mrs Mary Robinson, was awarded the 1999 Erasmus Prize at a ceremony in Amsterdam yesterday, Vera Vaughan Bowden reports.
The prize, worth over £100,000, was presented by Prince Bernhard of The Netherlands, patron of the foundation, whose citation referred to Mrs Robinson's "untiring efforts to promote fundamental values".
In response to the citation, Mrs Robinson said that the human rights message was clear. "It says to the poor, the oppressed, the marginalised: `You are not lone. You are not powerless. You have rights which are universal and fundamental.' "