Kerry Kennedy | |
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Born | Mary Kerry Kennedy September 8, 1959 Washington, D. C., U.S. |
Education | Brown University (BA) Boston College (JD) |
Occupations |
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Known for | Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights (President) |
Political party | Democratic |
Spouse | |
Children | 3 |
Parents | |
Family | Kennedy |
Mary Kerry Kennedy (born September 8, 1959) is an American lawyer, author, and human rights activist. She is a daughter of former United States Senator Robert F. Kennedy and Ethel Kennedy, and a niece of former U.S. President John F. Kennedy and former U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy.
She is the president of Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, a non-profit human rights advocacy organization. [1]
Mary Kerry Kennedy was born on September 8, 1959, in Washington, D.C., to parents Robert F. Kennedy and Ethel Skakel. Three days after her birth, her father resigned as chief counsel of the Senate Rackets Committee to run his brother's campaign for presidency. [2] Kennedy spent her childhood between the family's homes in McLean, Virginia and Hyannis Port, Massachusetts. [3] [4] She appeared at age 3 in the 1963 Robert Drew documentary Crisis: Behind a Presidential Commitment saying hello to U.S. Justice Department official Nicholas Katzenbach by phone from the office of her father, who was U.S. Attorney General at the time. [5] Her father was assassinated in 1968. [6] She is a graduate of The Putney School in Vermont [7] and Brown University. She later received her Juris Doctor from Boston College Law School. [8]
Kennedy's life has been devoted to equal justice, to the promotion and protection of basic rights, and to the preservation of the rule of law. [9] Kennedy is the president of Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights. [9] She started working in the field of human rights in 1981 as an intern with Amnesty International, where she investigated abuses committed by U.S. immigration officials against refugees from the Salvadoran Civil War in El Salvador. [10]
For over thirty years, she has worked on diverse human rights issues such as children's rights, child labor, disappearances, indigenous land rights, judicial independence, freedom of expression, ethnic violence, impunity, and the environment. She has concentrated specifically on women's rights, particularly honor killings, sexual slavery, domestic violence, workplace discrimination, and sexual assault. She has worked in over 60 countries and led hundreds of human rights delegations. [9]
Kennedy established the RFK Center Partners for Human Rights in 1986 to ensure the protection of rights codified under the U.N. Declaration of Human Rights. RFK Partners provides support to human rights defenders around the world. The Center uncovers human rights abuses such as torture, repression of free speech and child labor; urges Congress and the U.S. administration to highlight human rights in foreign policy; and supplies activists with the resources they need to advance their work. Kennedy also founded RFK Compass, which works on sustainable investing with leaders in the financial community. She started the RFK Training Institute in Florence, Italy, which offers courses of study to leading human rights defenders across the globe. [9]
Kennedy is Chair of the Amnesty International USA Leadership Council. Nominated by President George W. Bush and confirmed by the U.S. Senate, she is on the board of directors of the United States Institute of Peace, [11] as well as Human Rights First, and Inter Press Service in Rome, Italy. She is a patron of the Bloody Sunday Trust (Northern Ireland) and serves on the Editorial Board of Advisors of the Buffalo Human Rights Law Review. She is on the Advisory Committee for the International Campaign for Tibet, the Committee on the Administration of Justice of Northern Ireland, the Global Youth Action Network, Studies without Borders and several other organizations. She serves on the leadership council of the Amnesty International Campaign to Stop Violence Against Women and on the Advisory Board of the Albert Schweitzer Institute and the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center's National Advisory Council. [9]
Lawyers for Ecuadorean plaintiffs in the long-running lawsuit against Chevron Corporation for environmental and human health damages at the Lago Agrio oil field hired Kennedy to conduct public relations for their cause. She traveled to Ecuador in 2009, after which she blasted Chevron in an article for the Huffington Post . [12] [13] Neither her Huffington Post piece nor the news coverage of her advocacy disclosed that she was being paid by the plaintiffs, a fact not made public until 2012. The plaintiffs' lead American lawyer reportedly paid Kennedy $50,000 in February 2010, and the plaintiffs' law firm budgeted $10,000 per month for her services, plus $40,000 in expenses in June 2010. Kennedy was also reportedly given a 0.25 percent share of any money collected from Chevron, worth $40 million if the full amount were to be collected. [14] Kennedy responded that she was "paid a modest fee for the time I spent on the case," but denied that she had any financial interest in the outcome. [15]
Kennedy has criticized the treatment of New York teenager Kalief Browder during his extended time in pretrial detention at Rikers Island. [16] This included video recordings of guards beating Browder, withholding food, and denying medical treatment. [17] In 2016, Kennedy campaigned for adoption of S 5998-A/A 8296-A, referred to as "Kalief's Law," in the [New York State Legislature], which would have guaranteed speedy trials to defendants being held in pretrial detention. [18] On June 9, 2016, the New York State Assembly passed Kalief's Law by a 138-2 margin. [19] The law was not voted on by the New York State Senate in 2016, and has been reintroduced by State Senator Daniel L. Squadron during the 2017-2018 legislative session as S 1998-A. [20]
Kennedy remains a major voice in the campaign for speedy trial reform in New York, writing in a 2017 New York Daily News editorial that "we make a mockery out of the promise" of a speedy trial. [16] Kennedy has also worked closely with the Katal Center for Health, Equity and Justice to campaign for passage of speedy trial reform and criminal justice reform before the New York Assembly. [21]
On June 21, 2017, Kennedy, through her organization, Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, posted the $100,000 bail for Pedro Hernandez, a 17-year-old who had spent over a year in pretrial detention at Rikers Island in connection with a shooting investigation. [22] [23] Hernandez had become the face of bail reform following extensive reporting on his incarceration by Daily News columnist Shaun King. [24] [25] [26]
Hernandez's bail had initially been set at over $250,000, but that sum was lowered to $100,000 after Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights argued such a high sum was disproportional. [27] Less than a week after his release from Rikers Island, Bronx District Attorney Darcel D. Clark announced she would no longer pursue a case against Hernandez. [28] On October 9, 2018, all remaining charges against Hernandez were dropped on the condition he attend college.
On June 21, 2018, in response to President Donald Trump's decision to enact a 'zero-tolerance' policy of family separation on immigrants entering the United States illegally, Kennedy joined organizations including the Dolores Huerta Foundation, the Texas Civil Rights Project and La Union Del Pueblo Entero to launch the 'Break Bread Not Families Immigration Fast and Prayer Chain. [29] [30] The campaign, which raised funds to support the reunification of immigrant families, argued Trump administration policy was "not only immoral, it is also illegal under U.S. and international law." [31]
On June 23, 2018, the Break Bread Not Families campaign held a prayer vigil in the American border town of McAllen, Texas. [32] The vigil marked the start of the campaign that encouraged activists, political figures and celebrities to fast for 24 hours before passing the fast to another public figure. Participants included former United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julian Castro, United States Senator Ed Markey, Congresswomen Rosa DeLauro, Barbara Lee and Annie McLane Kuster, Congressman Joseph P. Kennedy III, and actors such as Aisha Tyler, [33] Alfre Woodard, Julia Roberts, [34] Lena Dunham, and Evan Rachel Wood. [35]
Kennedy joined protestors outside the Ursula Detention Center, where they temporarily blocked a bus of immigrant children from departing. [36] Kennedy was threatened with arrest by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents after repeatedly attempting to speak with officials inside Ursula about the use of chain-link cages to house children separated from their families.[ citation needed ]
The next day, Kennedy and Dolores Huerta led a march and rally outside the federal immigration camp in Tornillo, Texas in solidarity with the then-2,400 child immigrants in facilities similar to Tornillo. [37]
In 2008, Kennedy was the editor of Being Catholic Now, Prominent Americans talk about Change in the Church and the Quest for Meaning. The book included essays from prominent Catholics, including Nancy Pelosi, Cokie Roberts, now-former Cardinal McCarrick, Sister Joan Chittister, Tom Monaghan, Bill O'Reilly, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Doug Brinkley, and others.
In 2018, Kennedy published Robert F. Kennedy: Ripples of Hope: Kerry Kennedy in Conversation with Heads of State, Business Leaders, Influencers, and Activists about Her Father's Impact on Their Lives. The book contains interviews from prominent individuals whose lives and careers were influenced by the legacy of Robert F. Kennedy, and explores how Kennedy's legacy touched the fields of entertainment, politics, faith, and activism. Interviewees include Tony Bennett, Harry Belafonte, Bono, Barack Obama, John Lewis and activists including Gloria Steinem and Marian Wright Edelman.
Kennedy holds honorary doctorates of law from Le Moyne College and University of San Francisco Law School, and of Humane Letters from Bay Path College and the Albany College of Pharmacy. [9] She is also a member of the Massachusetts and District of Columbia bar associations. [38]
Kennedy was named Woman of the Year 2001 by Save the Children, [39] Humanitarian of the Year Award from the South Asian Media Awards Foundation, and the Prima Donna Award from Montalcino Vineyards. In 2008, she received the Eleanor Roosevelt Medal of Honor and the Thomas More Award from Boston College Law School. World Vision and International AIDS Trust gave her the 2009 Human Rights Award. [9]
She has received awards from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (for leadership in abolishing the death penalty), the American Jewish Congress of the Metropolitan Region, and the Institute for the Italian American experience three I's award for outstanding efforts and achievements for human rights. [9]
In 2017, Kennedy received the Medal for Social Activism from the World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates in Bogota, Colombia for "her impactful efforts on communities throughout the world as a result of her life-long devotion to the pursuit of equal justice." [40]
On June 9, 1990, she married Andrew Cuomo at age 30 in the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in Washington, D.C. [41] They have three daughters: twins Cara Ethel Kennedy-Cuomo and Mariah Matilda Kennedy-Cuomo (b. 1995), and Michaela Andrea Kennedy-Cuomo (b. 1997). During her 15-year marriage to Cuomo, from 1990 to 2005, she was known as Kerry Kennedy-Cuomo. Kennedy and Cuomo divorced in 2005.
In July 2012, Kennedy allegedly sideswiped a tractor trailer on Interstate 684 in Westchester County. On the morning of July 13, 2012, Kennedy was found in her white Lexus. A police report said Kennedy had trouble speaking, was swaying and told an officer that she may have accidentally taken a sleeping pill earlier that day. In a court appearance on July 17, 2012, Kennedy said local hospital tests found no traces of drugs and that her doctor believed she had suffered a seizure. Kennedy pleaded not guilty to driving while impaired. Kennedy was charged by state police with leaving the scene of an accident. A toxicology report filed on July 25, 2012, said zolpidem was found in a sample of her blood taken when Kennedy was arrested, [42] at which point Kennedy released a statement saying in part, "The results we received today from the Westchester County lab showed trace amounts of a sleep aid in my system, so it now appears that my first instinct was correct. I am deeply sorry to all those I endangered that day, and am enormously grateful for the support I have received over the past two weeks." Kennedy said she did not remember anything after entering a highway to go to a gym and before she found herself at a traffic light with a police officer at her door. [43] On January 23, 2014, Judge Robert Neary ruled that the drugged-driving case against Kennedy would move forward. [44] On February 20, 2014, jury selection for her trial began. Kennedy was not present, and was instead in Brussels and the Western Sahara conducting human rights advocacy. [45] Sixty-two people were interviewed for the six-person panel. [46] Kennedy admitted to having been in a car wreck 18 months before the incident, as well as suffering a head injury that required medication. [47] Kennedy was acquitted of the charges on February 28, 2014. [48]
Ethel Kennedy was an American human rights advocate. She was the wife of U.S. senator Robert F. Kennedy, a sister-in-law of U.S. president John F. Kennedy, and a daughter of businessman George Skakel.
Robert Francis Kennedy Jr., also known by his initials RFK Jr., is an American politician, environmental lawyer, author, anti-vaccine activist, and conspiracy theorist. He is the nominee for United States Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) in President Donald Trump's second cabinet.
Rikers Island is a 413-acre (167.14-hectare) prison island in the East River in the Bronx that contains New York City's largest jail.
Aminatou Ali Ahmed Haidar, sometimes spelled as Aminetou, Aminatu or Aminetu, is a Sahrawi human rights activist and an advocate of the independence of Western Sahara. She is often called the "Sahrawi Gandhi" or "Sahrawi Pasionaria" for her nonviolent protests. She is the president of the Collective of Sahrawi Human Rights Defenders (CODESA). She was imprisoned from 1987 to 1991 and from 2005 to 2006 on charges related to her independence advocacy. In 2009, she attracted international attention when she staged a hunger strike in Lanzarote Airport after being denied re-entry into Moroccan Western Sahara. Haidar has won several international human rights awards for her work, including the 2008 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award, 2009 Civil Courage Prize and 2019 Right Livelihood Award.
Raji Sourani is a human rights lawyer and the director of the Palestinian Center for Human Rights.
The Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award was created in 1984 by the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial, now known as Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, to honor individuals around the world who have shown great courage and have made a significant contribution to human rights in their country.
Robert Francis Kennedy, also known as RFK, was an American politician and lawyer. He served as the 64th United States attorney general from January 1961 to September 1964, and as a U.S. senator from New York from January 1965 until his assassination in June 1968, when he was running for the Democratic presidential nomination. Like his brothers John F. Kennedy and Ted Kennedy, he was a prominent member of the Democratic Party and is considered an icon of modern American liberalism.
Gibson Kamau Kuria is a Kenyan lawyer and a recipient of the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award for 1988.
There are several non-standard accounts of Robert F. Kennedy's assassination, which took place shortly after midnight on June 5, 1968, in Los Angeles, California. Kennedy was assassinated at the Ambassador Hotel, during celebrations following his successful campaign in California's primary elections as a leading 1968 Democratic presidential candidate; he died the following day at Good Samaritan Hospital.
Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit human rights advocacy organization. It was named after United States Senator Robert F. Kennedy in 1968, a few months after his assassination. The organization of leading attorneys, advocates, entrepreneurs and writers is dedicated to a more just and peaceful world, working alongside local activists to ensure lasting positive change in governments and corporations. It also promotes human rights advocacy through its RFK Human Rights Award, and supports investigative journalists and authors through the RFK Book and Journalism Awards. It is based in New York and Washington, D.C. Robert F. Kennedy's daughter, Kerry Kennedy, serves as the organization's President.
Monika Satya Kalra Varma is the Director of Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights. Varma is on the editorial board of the François-Xavier Bagnoud Health and Human Rights at Harvard University She serves on the advisory board for the Global India Fund. Previously, Varma worked for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in Hague, Netherlands. She received her Juris Doctor degree from the University of California, Davis School of Law, and published "Forced Marriage: Rwanda's Secret Revealed," 11 U.C. Davis Journal of Law & Policy 197-221 (2001).
Đoàn Viết Hoạt is a Vietnamese journalist, educator, and democratic activist who was repeatedly imprisoned for his criticisms of Vietnam's Communist leadership. He has received numerous international awards in recognition of his work, including the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award, and is often referred to as the "Sakharov of Vietnam".
Mary Kathleen Richardson Kennedy was an American interior designer and philanthropist. She was a proponent of green building and was a co-founder of the Food Allergy Initiative, the largest fund for food allergy research in the United States. Her 2010 legal separation from her husband, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., was highly publicized. Her suicide in 2012 also received national media attention.
Abel Barrera Hernández is a Mexican anthropologist and human rights activist. In 1994, he founded the Center for Human Rights of the Mountain of Tlachinollan in Guerrero, for which he was awarded by Amnesty International and given the 2010 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award.
Delphine Djiraibe is a Chadian attorney and co-founder of the Chadian Association for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights.In 2006 she also founded the Public Interest Law Center (PILC). BBC News has described her as "one of Chad's most prominent human rights lawyers".
Loune Viaud is Executive Director of Zanmi Lasante, Partners in Health’s sister organization in Haiti. She won the 2002 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award for her work with the group to provide health care in Haiti, and in 2003 was named one of Ms. magazine's "Women of the Year".
Bail in the United States refers to the practice of releasing suspects from custody before their hearing, on payment of bail, which is money or pledge of property to the court which may be refunded if suspects return to court for their trial. Bail practices in the United States vary from state to state.
Steven Robert Donziger is an American attorney known for his legal battles with Chevron, particularly Aguinda v. Texaco, Inc. and other cases in which he represented over 30,000 farmers and indigenous people who suffered environmental damage and health problems caused by oil drilling in the Lago Agrio oil field of Ecuador. The Ecuadorian court awarded the plaintiffs $9.5 billion in damages, which led Chevron to withdraw its assets from Ecuador and launch legal action against Donziger in the US. In 2011, Chevron filed a RICO (anti-corruption) suit against Donziger in New York City. The case was heard by US District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan, who determined that the ruling of the Ecuadorian court could not be enforced in the US because it was procured by fraud, bribery, and racketeering activities. As a result of this case, Donziger was disbarred from practicing law in New York in 2018.
Kalief Browder was an African American youth from The Bronx, New York, who was held at the Rikers Island jail complex, without trial, between 2010 and 2013 for allegedly stealing a backpack containing valuables. During his imprisonment, Browder was kept in solitary confinement for 800 days.
Darcel Denise Clark is an American attorney and prosecutor who has served as the Bronx County District Attorney since 2016. Clark is the first woman to hold that office, and the first woman of color to serve as a district attorney in the history of the State of New York.