Significant new powers and resources are to be provided for the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights when the President, Mrs Robinson, takes up the post next month.
As part of a major restructuring of the post, Mrs Robinson is to be provided with extra staff, new functions and a regular input into other UN activities such as peacekeeping and development. The reforms significantly upgrade the post by putting human rights at the heart of all UN activities.
In an interview to be broadcast on US radio this weekend, Mrs Robinson says the challenge posed by her new post is "more difficult" than that she faced as President. The post of commissioner has become "more significant" within the UN, she acknowledged, but has not yet been "fully shaped and developed".
The revamp, as proposed by the UN Secretary General, Mr Kofi Annan, will be agreed in the autumn, according to UN sources. It is not thought the measures will require ratification by the General Assembly.
As part of the restructuring, a deputy commissioner, probably from the developing world, will be appointed to assist Mrs Robinson. The commissioner's staff at UN headquarters in New York - Mrs Robinson will be based in Geneva - will be expanded.
In addition, she will take over direct responsibility for the Centre for Human Rights in Geneva, which has operated separately.
Mrs Robinson's staff will participate regularly in top-level UN committees on peace and security, economic and social affairs, development operations and humanitarian affairs. At present, contacts are on an ad hoc basis.
Mr Annan has also charged the new commissioner with the task of streamlining and rationalising the UN's human rights machinery. In his reform proposals for the UN, published in June, he described human rights as a "key element" in peace-making and peace-building activities, which should be incorporated into "early warning activities".
Mrs Robinson is resigning the Presidency on September 12th, and plans to leave for Geneva the same day. She then leaves for New York to attend the General Assembly on September 15th.
The Swiss government is providing the historic Palais Wilson in Geneva as the new office for the commissioner.
Mrs Robinson's special advisor, Ms Bride Rosney, will continue to work with her in her new job "on a transitional basis". Ms Rosney had earlier planned to return to her teaching career.
In her radio interview, the President says her challenge will be "to try to bring the perspective of the North and the South together.
"It's not quite the same as developing the office of President of Ireland. It's quite difficult and it's on a more universal scale, but it has its own challenges," she told The World, a service jointly operated by US public radio and the BBC World Service.
Mrs Robinson said there was a perception that the West used civil and political rights as a stick to put pressure on developing countries whose priority would be economic and social rights. "What I want to do is bridge that gap," she said.
Next year would be an important one in human rights, she continued, as it marked the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, as well as the fifth anniversary of the Vienna conference on human rights.
