Kerry Kennedy

I met Mary on her first day at Putney, we were 15. The next weekend we hitch hiked to Boston to see my siblings Michael, Bobby, David, Courtney and Kathleen, and for the rest of her life, she spent nearly every weekend and vacation with our family. We were roommates...

It's an honor to spread the word that between now and May 17, more than one hundred leaders in politics, media, Hollywood, and sports are teaming up as part of the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice & Human Rights' fifth annual online auction to support human rights...

The 1965 bullying incident at Michigan's elite Cranbrook School that came to light this week has kicked off a series of conversations about bullying and about the extent to which we should hold our nation's leaders accountable for past behavior.

But even after Mitt Romney's "If I...

China performs 13 million abortions a year. When Chen Guangcheng dared criticized the slaughter, the government of China threw him in prison for four long years. So, while the U.S. State Department and Chinese officials wrangle over Mr. Chen's fate, the larger questions concern the horrific contours of...

I spent yesterday morning in the library of Chicago's Lincoln Park High School, listening to students talk about what the word "hero" means to them. This wasn't any normal school day -- in a few moments they would meet Dr. Muhammad Yunus, the father of micro-lending and 2006 Nobel Peace...

Last weekend, my 14-year-old daughter, Michaela, and I were en route to Easter Sunday mass in Acapulco. We were stopped, harassed, threatened, and detained by eight soldiers in battle fatigues brandishing automatic weapons. At first, I was merely concerned; after all, we were traveling with RFK Human Rights Award Laureate...

RFK Speak Truth to Power Human Rights Defender Baltasar Garzon has made a career of fighting against the thugs of the world -- organized crime, terrorists, drug lords, death squads and perpetrators of crimes against humanity. In October 1988, he inspired a generation of human rights defenders when he indicted...

On Tuesday, Feb. 7, hours before the Ninth Circuit ruled "Prop 8" unconstitutional in the state of California, raucous cheers rang out in the Ugandan Parliament as legislators reintroduced a controversial bill that would in effect legislate hate against the Ugandan lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) community.

The...

In Christmas 2010, I took my three daughters -- Cara, Mariah and Michaela -- to Ecuador's Amazon to take part in a "Toxi-tour" and stand witness to what could be the worst environmental disaster on the planet. This is the awful mess that Chevron left behind at the headwaters...

The following remarks were made by Kerry Kennedy, President of the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights, at the 2011 RFK Human Rights Award, presented to the Ugandan activist for sexual minorities Frank Mugisha, in Washington, DC, on November 10.

The New York Times

Last night, Wangari Maathia, the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize, died. Most people think of Ms. Maathai as an environmentalist, planting trees. In reality, her environmental activism was part of a holistic approach to empowering women, advocating for democracy, and protecting the earth.

Wangari Maathai was...

More than a year after a private company operating in public waters retched 170 million gallons of crude and 2 million gallons of toxic dispersants into the Gulf of Mexico creating an environmental catastrophe, we still lack reliable statistics on the BP oil disaster's impact on the health of residents.

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On this day, 43 years ago, in the midst of a national struggle to make real the promises of justice and equality, we lost Robert F. Kennedy. Today, we honor his legacy when we stand with heroes who are devoted to the pursuit of justice and put their own lives...

This month, Lady Gaga, Elton John, Anderson Cooper, and Oprah have one thing in common:
they are all taking part in the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice & Human Rights' fifth annual online auction to support human rights worldwide. You can, too.

If you'd like to tour...

Watching President Obama deliver his healing message to a nation in grief last week, I could not help but recall the words of Robert Kennedy on April 4, 1968.

Flying from Muncie to Indianapolis in the midst of his presidential bid, my father was informed that Dr. Martin Luther...

Haiti's January 2010 earthquake left more than 230,000 dead, 300,000-plus injured, 1.5 million homeless and physically leveled 28 of 29 government ministries. In response, the international community pledged 5.5 billion dollars in aid to rebuild Haiti. Today, only 10 percent of the promised funding has reached its shores.

Haitians...

Co-authored by Kerry Kennedy and Guillaume Ngefa

Tomorrow the World Bank Board and International Monetary Fund Board of Directors will decide whether to forgive a significant portion of the "odious" debt of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) accumulated to a large degree during the autocratic and kleptocratic regime of...

CODEN, Ala. -- When Gulf Coast resident Louise Bosarge heard President Obama refer to her community as "resilient," her response was poetic: "We bounce back. We always bounce back. Bouncing hurts."

Along with my daughter Mariah and a team of human rights experts from the RFK Center...

Traces of paradise are still visible. From the air, the rainforest region in northern Ecuador--known as the Oriente--appears as silvery mist and swaths of verdant green.

But beneath the cloud cover and canopy, the jungle is a tangle of oil slicks, festering sludge, and rusted pipeline. Smokestacks sprout from the...

I think continually of those who were truly great.
Who, from the womb, remembered the soul's history...