# Helena Kennedy, Baroness Kennedy of The Shaws

Helena Ann Kennedy, Baroness Kennedy of The Shaws (born 12 May 1950), is a Scottish barrister, broadcaster, and Labour member of the House of Lords. She was Principal of Mansfield College, Oxford, from 2011 to 2018. A Bencher of Gray's Inn, an Honorary Writer to the Signet and the recipient of 42 Honorary Degrees from many universities including those of Glasgow and Edinburgh in recognition of work on women and the law and on widening participation in higher education. She is President of Justice, the law reform think tank, and is also director of the International Bar Association's Institute of Human Rights. In 2024, Kennedy succeeded Lord Neuberger of Abbotsbury as Chair of the High Level Panel of Legal Experts on Media Freedom.

## Early life and education

Kennedy was born on 12 May 1950 in Glasgow, Scotland, one of the four daughters of Mary Veronica (née Jones) and Joshua Patrick Kennedy, nicknamed "Mae" and "Joss", respectively. Her parents were committed Labour activists and devoutly Roman Catholic. Her father, a printer with the Daily Record, was a trade union official.
She attended Holyrood Secondary School in Glasgow, where she was appointed Head Girl. She studied law at the Council of Legal Education in London.

## Legal career

In 1972, Kennedy was called to the bar at Gray's Inn. Among her many cases, Kennedy acted as junior counsel for child murderer Myra Hindley during her 1974 trial for plotting to escape from Holloway Prison. She was appointed a Queen's Counsel in 1991.

## Politics

Kennedy rebels against her party whip in the House of Lords more frequently than any other Labour Peer, having a dissent rate of 33.3%. She was Chair of Charter 88 (1992–1997) and is closely affiliated to the educational charity Common Purpose. In 2020, she worked with the Conservative MP Iain Duncan Smith and democracy activist Luke de Pulford to create the global pressure group Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China. In March 2021, China placed sanctions on her. The sanctions were condemned by the Prime Minister and led the Foreign Secretary to summon the Chinese ambassador.

## Academia

Kennedy became the first Chancellor of Oxford Brookes University, serving from 1994 until 2001. She was elected principal of Mansfield College, Oxford, in July 2010 and served in the role from September 2011. She retired in 2018 and became Chancellor of Sheffield Hallam University on 26 July 2018.

## Personal life

From 1978 to 1984 she lived with the actor Iain Mitchell, and together they had a son. In 1986, Kennedy married Iain Louis Hutchison, a surgeon, with whom she has a daughter and a son.
Kennedy regularly attends Mass and professes that her Roman Catholicism "remains very much part of who I am", even though she eschews its more traditional values.
In 2023, Kennedy took part in King Charles and Queen Camilla's coronation at Westminster Abbey, carrying the Queen Consort's Rod with Dove.

## Honours

She has received numerous awards, including:
* Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA)
* Fellow of the City and Guilds of London Institute (FCGI)
* Member of the Académie Universelle des Cultures (Paris)
* Honorary Fellow, Royal College of Psychiatrists, 2005
* Honorary Fellow, Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, 2005
* Honorary Fellow, Institute of Advanced Legal Studies
* Honorary Fellow, Lucy Cavendish College, University of Cambridge, 2010
* Honorary Fellow, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), 2011
* Honorary Doctorate of Law, Plymouth University, 2012
* Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (HonFRSE), 2014
* She was recognized as one of the BBC's 100 Women of 2021.
* She was chosen to carry the Queen's Rod in the Royal Procession at the Coronation of Charles III and Camilla.
* She was appointed as a Lady of the Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle (LT) by King Charles III in 2024.

## Broadcasting

* Creator: Blind Justice, BBC TV, 1987
* Presenter: Heart of the Matter, BBC TV, 1987
* After Dark, Channel 4 and BBC4, 1987–2003
** Kennedy presented many editions of this series, including the 1991 "Do Men Have To Be Violent" featuring an inebriated Oliver Reed who verbally insulted and attempted to kiss feminist Kate Millett, as well as the 1995 special "Ireland: Sex & Celibacy, Church & State" which included an unscheduled last-minute appearance from singer Sinéad O'Connor.
* Presenter: Raw Deal on Medical Negligence, BBC TV, 1989
* Presenter: The Trial of Lady Chatterley's Lover, BBC Radio 4, 1990
* Presenter: Time Gentlemen, Please, BBC Scotland, 1994 (Winner, Television Programme Award category, 1994 Industrial Journalism Awards)
* Commissioner, BAFTA Inquiry into the future of the BBC, 1990

## Appointments

* President, Helena Kennedy Foundation
* President of the Board the Governors of the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS)
* President, Women of the Year Lunch (2010–2015)
* Chair, JUSTICE
* Chair, High Level Panel of Legal Experts on Media Freedom
* Chair of the Board of Governors for the United World College of the Atlantic
* President, Medical Aid for Palestinians
* Patron, Burma Campaign UK, the London-based group campaigning for human rights and democracy in Burma
* Member of the Board of Independent News and Media
* Patron, upReach, a UK social mobility charity that supports undergraduates from low income backgrounds pursuing competitive graduate careers.
* Trustee, KPMG Foundation
* Chancellor of Oxford Brookes University (1994–2001)
* Chancellor of Sheffield Hallam University (appointed in 2018)
* Chair, British Council (1998–2004)
* Chair, Human Genetics Commission (1998–2007)
* President of the National Children's Bureau (1998–2005)
* Kennedy chaired the Power Commission (November 2005 – March 2006), which examined the problem of democratic disengagement in the United Kingdom. A report was produced which highlighted the "Myth of Apathy" and the lack of political engagement
* Chair of Power 2010, which aimed to carry forward the concepts behind the Power Commission into the UK 2010 General Election
* Member of the World Bank Institute's External Advisory Council
* Member of the board of the British Museum
* Member of the High Level Panel of Legal Experts on Media Freedom
* Vice-president of the Haldane Society
* Vice-president of the Association of Women Barristers
* Patron, London International Festival of Theatre liftfestival.com
* Patron, Public Law Project
* Patron, Institute for Learning (IfL) http://www.ifl.ac.uk Archived 19 March 2015 at the Wayback Machine
* Patron, Liberty
* Patron, UNLOCK, The National Association of Ex-Offenders
* Patron, Debt Doctors Foundation UK (DD-UK)
* Patron, Tower Hamlets Summer University
* Patron, Rights Watch (UK)
* Patron of SafeHands for Mothers, a UK-based charity whose mission is to improve maternal and newborn health by harnessing the power of the visual, through the production of films.
* Chair, Howard League's Commission of Inquiry into Violence in Penal Institutions for Young People (the final report, Banged Up, Beaten Up, Cutting Up, published in 1995)
* Chair, Reading Borough Council's Commission of Inquiry into the health, environmental and safety aspects of the Atomic Weapons Establishment at Aldermaston (final report Secrecy versus Safety, published in 1994)
* Chair, Royal Colleges of Pathologists' and of Pædiatrics' Inquiry into Sudden Infant Death (producing a protocol for the investigation of such deaths in 2004)
* Member of the Foreign Policy Centre's Advisory Council
* Formerly UK member of the International Bar Association's Task Force on Terrorism
* As Commissioner of the National Commission for Education, she chaired a committee on widening participation in further education and the commission's report, Learning Works, published in 1997.
* Chair, Booker Prize Foundation (2015–2020)
* Vice President of the Campaign for Homosexual Equality (from 2017)

## Civic honours

* Created a life peer as Baroness Kennedy of The Shaws, of Cathcart in the City of Glasgow on 27 October 1997.
* Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic on 23 March 2004.
* Commander of the Order of Academic Palms (2006).