The Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice & Human Rights was founded in 1968 to carry on Robert Kennedy’s commitment to creating a more just and peaceful world. Robert Kennedy, serving as the U.S. attorney general, as a senator, and as a presidential candidate during the 1960s, fought tirelessly to promote social justice and human rights, both in the United States and abroad. His life is an inspiration to millions. Kennedy stood in solidarity with human rights activists who often toiled in obscurity with little support from allies outside their own communities. For more than four decades, the RFK Center has carried on his legacy by supporting human rights leaders around the world through long-term partnerships and by inspiring new leaders to join the global struggle for ensuring respect for social justice and human rights.

What Sets the RFK Center Apart The RFK Center’s program model focuses on the power of the individual to generate change. Combining the advocacy strength of its Partners for Human Rights program and the educational outreach of its Speak Truth To Power program, the organization increases the effectiveness of human rights activists through sustained, strategic partnerships, extending these activists’ reach to lawmakers, legislators, diplomats, international institutions, and corporations. In the tradition of Robert F. Kennedy, the RFK Center has a successful history of collaborations with NGOs, universities, legal clinics, and the media on behalf of oppressed communities. The RFK Center is also at the forefront of advancing economic and social rights, a particular area of expertise.

The RFK Center Initiatives Partners for Human Rights: legal and advocacy initiatives Speak Truth to Power: educational program The RFK Compass Program: engaging the investment community Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award Robert F. Kennedy Book Award

Partners for Human Rights The only international human rights program of its kind, the Human Rights Center forges multi-year partnerships with recipients of the annual Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award. The Human Rights Center joins their struggle, developing long-term strategies using cutting-edge human rights advocacy tools and sustained advocacy support to effect real change in their communities. Since 1984, the Human Rights Center has worked with 43 Laureates from 25 countries.

Speak Truth To Power The RFK Center’s Speak Truth To Power program shares the compelling stories of courageous human rights defenders as a means to educate middle school, high school, and college students around the world to champion human rights. Speak Truth To Power’s education module is comprised of: a book written by Kerry Kennedy, featuring the true stories of 51 heroic human rights defenders and portraits by Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Eddie Adams; a human rights curriculum with a “toolkit for change” that has been distributed to hundreds of thousands of students in the United States, Europe, and Africa; a traveling exhibition of Adams’ photographs that has appeared in major international museums; and a play written by Broadway playwright Ariel Dorfman that has been produced in dozens of venues around the world.

Speak Truth To Power Program Speak Truth To Power is currently working with frontline groups in Cambodia to develop a curriculum for Cambodian high school students. For the first time since the reign of the Khmer Rouge, Cambodians are able to openly discuss the human rights issues in their country. The curriculum will serve as an important catalyst in the advancement of this dialogue. Likewise, through a partnership with New York State United Teachers (NYSUT), Speak Truth To Power developed and launched an online human rights curriculum created with New York State teachers for middle school and high school students.

The RFK Compass Program In August 2010, the RFK Center launched its newest initiative, the RFK Compass Program. The program works with institutional investors to advance a discussion of the connections among investment performance, fiduciary responsibility, and public interest issues. Activities include: intimate, interactive conferences for senior-level decision-makers from the investment, policy, and academic communities; fiduciary education addressing sustainable investing; and in- depth research and policy analysis.

The RFK Book and Journalism Awards The Robert F. Kennedy Book Award honors the book that most forcefully reflects Robert Kennedy’s priorities: concern for the poor and the powerless, the struggle for even-handed justice, and a remedy for disparities of power and opportunity. The Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award celebrates excellence in reporting on a wide array of social justice issues. Professionals and students are recognized in 12 domestic and international categories.

“Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance” - Robert F. Kennedy