Baroness Kennedy QC

Leading barrister, expert in human rights law, civil liberties and constitutional issues
Great Britain

Helena Kennedy of The Shaws QC is a leading barrister of over 50 years’ experience. She is a King’s Counsel and a member of the House of Lords in the UK Parliament.
She is a Master of the Bench at Gray’s Inn and has been Master of an Oxford College, during which time she established the Institute of Human Rights at Oxford University. Presently, she served as the Director of the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI), an independent entity within the International Bar Association (IBA), established in 1947, which is the world’s leading organisation of international legal practitioners, bar associations and law societies. Helena is also the President of Justice, a law reform and human rights charity, working to reform the UK justice system with a focus on the most vulnerable and marginalised in society.
In 2023, she has also been appointed by the Office of the President of Ukraine as Co-Chair of Bring Kids Back UA – a high-level group of experts focused on returning forcefully deported children to Ukraine.
From 1992 to 1997 she was the chair of Charter 88, the Human Genetics Commission from 1998 to 2007 and the British Council from 1998 to 2004. She also chaired the Power Inquiry, which reported on the state of British democracy and produced the Power Report in 2006. She was honoured for her work on human rights from the governments of France and Italy and has been awarded more than thirty honorary doctorates. She is on the board of the Independent newspaper, which she has done since 1998, and a member of the Media Standards Trust, amongst other.