Kerry Kennedy

Mary Kerry Kennedy (born September 8, 1959) is an American lawyer, author and human rights activist.

She is the seventh child of Robert F. Kennedy and Ethel Skakel Kennedy.

Mary Kerry Kennedy was born 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.

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, Robert F. Kennedy, Attorney General at the time.

Her father was assassinated in 1968.

She is a graduate of The Putney School and Brown University and received her Juris Doctor from Boston College Law School.

Since 1981, Kennedy has worked as a human rights activist, leading delegations into places such as El Salvador, Gaza, Haiti, Kenya, Northern Ireland, and South Korea

She was also involved in causes in China, Indonesia, Vietnam, India, Sudan, and Pakistan.

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.

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.

Kennedy established 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 courageous human rights defenders around the world.

The Center uncovers human rights abuses like 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.

Kennedy is the author of Speak Truth to Power: Human Rights Defenders Who Are Changing Our World, which features interviews with human rights activists including Marian Wright Edelman, the Dalai Lama, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Elie Wiesel, and more.

This book has been translated into 6 languages, with more coming, and has been adapted into a play by Ariel Dorfman.

It also is the foundation for the RFK Center's Speak Truth To Power program - a multi-faceted global initiative that uses the experiences of courageous defenders from around the world to educate students and others about human rights, and urge them to take action.

In 1988, Kennedy began serving as the president of the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Human Rights (now Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights).

During her 15-year marriage to former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, from 1990 to 2005, she was known as Kerry Kennedy-Cuomo.

She is the president of Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, a non-profit human rights advocacy organization.

She is the younger sister of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an independent candidate in the 2024 presidential election.

She was the executive director of the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial until 1995.

She is the honorary president of the Robert F. Kennedy Foundation of Europe, based in Florence, Italy.

She also branched the RFK Human Rights Foundation to Spain with the mission to promote the education about the defense of human rights worldwide.

Kennedy is the editor of Being Catholic Now, Prominent Americans talk about Change in the Church and the Quest for Meaning; Crown Publishing, Sept. 2008; ISBN 9780307346841.

The book includes 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 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."

Since 2018, Kennedy is working side by side with the President of the RFK Human Rights Spain appointed by her, María Díaz de la Cebosa, to increase the number of citizens with a working knowledge of human rights concepts.

Kennedy is the chair of the Amnesty International Leadership Council, and her writing has been published in The Boston Globe, The Chicago Sun-Times, and The New York Times.

She also serves on the advisory board of the Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment at Columbia University.

Kennedy also travels the country giving speeches and presentations and calling on her audiences to stand up and fight against human rights violations.

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'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.

Kennedy is the president of Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights.