Sean MacBride EuropaWorld 10/11/2000

A tireless campaigner against intolerance and injustice, the Nobel Peace Prize winner Sean MacBride was a key figure in securing the European Convention on Human Rights.

Sean MacBride was born to Irish parents in Paris on 26 January 1904. Growing up with his mother in France, he returned to Ireland after his father was executed for his part in the 1916 Easter Rising - the Irish rebellion against British rule. As a young man MacBride faced the full anguish and horror of a country struggling for its independence. He became active in the independence movement and was imprisoned on several occasions as a result. His experiences were to prove an enduring influence on his future work.
After the Second World War, MacBride started a political party, Clann na Poblachta, and was elected to the Irish parliament - the Dail Eireann - in 1947. The following year, 11 Clann na Poblachta representatives were elected and MacBride became the Minister for External Affairs, a post he was holding when the Council of Europe was drafting the European Convention on Human Rights.
This aim of the Convention was to guarantee international protection of human rights. MacBride served as President of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe from 1949-1950 and is credited with being a key force in securing the acceptance of this convention, which was finally signed in Rome on November 4, 1950. His passionate commitment to the rights enshrined by the Convention meant that he continued to devote his life to the protection and promotion of fundamental human rights until his death in 1988, nearly forty years later.
As if being an architect of one of the greatest European human rights triumphs wasn't enough, the energy and compassion of Sean McBride allowed him to hold a number of key positions in the wider international sphere also - many of these at the same time. In 1961 he was elected President of the International Board of Amnesty International, a post he held for the next 14 years, campaigning vigorously against persecution, intolerance and injustice. He was also elected to serve as Secretary-General of the International Commission of Jurists between 1963 and 1970, during which time he created - and chaired - a joint committee for the various non-governmental organisations championing the cause of human rights. Appropriately this committee was set up in 1968 - the UN International year for Human Rights. Following this, he was also elected Chair (1968-1974) and later President(1974-1985) of the International Peace Bureau.
In 1973 he was elected by the General Assembly of the United Nations to the post of UN Commissioner for Namibia with the rank of Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations - a fitting position for one who had worked tirelessly to ensure peace and protection for peoples the world over.
MacBride was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his life's work in 1974. He also received the Lenin Peace Prize in 1977. His work was both to campaign for, and to create structures that would allow, the universal protection of human rights in a peaceful world. When he was awarded the Noble Peace Prize in 1974 he was described as a man who "mobilised the conscience of the world in the fight against injustice." Through his contributions to Amnesty International, the International Peace Bureau, the United Nations and the European Convention on Human Rights, Sean MacBride has left an enduring and remarkable legacy.

Back to home page

Use browser back button to view more articles in this category