Helena Kennedy, Baroness Kennedy of The Shaws

Helena Ann Kennedy, Baroness Kennedy of The Shaws, KC, FRSA, HonFRSE (born 12 May 1950), is a Scottish barrister, broadcaster, and Labor member of the House of Lords. She was Principal of Mansfield College, Oxford from 2011 to 2018.

Early Life and Education

Kennedy was born on 12 May 1950 in Glasgow, Scotland one of the four daughters of Mary Veronica (nee Jones) and Joshua Patrick. Her parents were committed Labor 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 trail for plotting to escape from Holloway Prison.

Politics

Kennedy rebels against her party whip in the House of Lords more frequently than any other Labor 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 to 2001.

Kennedy was elected principal of Mansfield College, Oxford in July 2010 and served 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 Lain Mitchell, and together they had a son. In 1986, Kennedy married Lain 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.

Honors

She has received numerous academic awards, including:

-Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA)

-Fellow of the City and Guilds of London Institute (FCGI)

-Member of the Academic University des Cultures (Paris)

-Honorary Fellow, Royal College of Psychiatrists, 2005

-Honorary Fellow, Royal College of Pediatrics and Child Health, 2005

-Honorary Fellow, Institute of Advanced Legal Studies

-Honorary Fellow, 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 as Sergeant at Arms

Broadcasting

-Creator: Blind Justice, BBC TV, 1987

-Presenter: Heart of the Matter, BBC TV, 1987

-After Dark, Channel 4 and BBC4, 1987-2003

She presented many editions of this series, including the "drunk Oliver Reed" episode, where the actor verbally insulted and attempted to kiss feminist Kate Millett.

-Presenter: Raw Deal on Medical Negligence, BBC TV, 1989

-Presenter: The Trail of 'Lady Chatterley's Lover,' BBC Radio 4 1990

-Presenter: The Gentlemen, Please BBC Scotland, 1994 (Winner, Television Program 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 of the Board of Governors for the United World College of the Atlantic

-President, Medical Aid for Palestinians of

-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

-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

-Patron, Institute for Learning (IFL)

-Patron, Liberty

-Patron, UNLOCK, The National Association of Ex-Offenders

-Patron, Debit Doctors Foundation UK (DD-UK)

-Patron, Tower Hamlets Summer University

-Patron, Rights Watch

-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 Pediatrics' 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 Honors

-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)

Bibliography

-Eve was Framed: Women and British Justice, 1993

-Just Law: The changing face of justice and why it matters to us, 2004

-Eve was Shamed: How British Justice Is Failing Women, 2018

-Misjustice: How British Law is Failing Women, 2019

Title

27 October 1997 The Right Honorable The Baroness Kennedy of The Shaws

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