From 1969 to 1989 , President Mary Robinson was a member Seanad Éireann (the Upper House of Parliament). In 1990, she was inaugurated as the seventh President of Ireland and the first female President. She resigned in 1997 to take up an appointment as United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. She served as High Commissioner from 1997 until 2002. Robinson has been Honorary President of Oxfam International since 2002 and she is also a founding member and Chair of the Council of Women World Leaders. President Robinson's newest project is the Ethical Globalization Initiative, which seeks to incorporate human rights into the globalization process and support capacity building and good governance in developing countries. She is the co-founder of the Irish Centre for European Law at Trinity College (1988) and is the recipient of numerous awards from around the world.