Haleh Afshar, Professor of Politics and Women's Studies at York University, summarises her achievements:

Mary Robinson is a superb example of a woman politician who puts her humanity very much at the forefront of her politics. And of course I'm sure she's had to be tough, feisty but she really has always remained on the human side, she's really always kept people, their poverty, their suffering very much at the forefront of her discussions, and she's never lost sight of the needy. So in a sense she is perhaps the most people-oriented of all politicians and the one who has shown her sensitivity, who's kept herself as a vulnerable person, who hasn't had a hard front and for that I admire her enormously.