Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights
Introduction '''Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights''' (formerly the '''Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights''', or '''RFK Center''') is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit human rights advocacy organization. It was named after United States Senator Robert F. Kennedy in 1968, a few months after his assassination. The organization of leading attorneys, advocates, entrepreneurs and writers is dedicated to a more just and peaceful world, working alongside local activists to ensure lasting positive change in governments and corporations. It also promotes human rights advocacy through its RFK Human Rights Award, and supports investigative journalists and authors through the RFK Book and Journalism Awards. It is based in New York and Washington, D.C.
History The Robert F. Kennedy Memorial was originally established as a non-profit organization in Washington, D.C., in October, 1968.The Kennedy family and friends looked to memorialize Robert Kennedy's public service following his assassination on June 5, 1968, in Los Angeles, California. Fred Dutton, a long-time friend and Kennedy ally, was named executive director, and Peter B. Edelman, a member of Kennedy's senatorial staff, became associate director. The chairman of the executive committee was former U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara.The Memorial was announced during a press conference at Hickory Hill in McLean, Virginia, on Tuesday, October 29, 1968.Kennedy's brother Ted led the press conference, stating that the organization would be a "living memorial" that would work in areas of poverty, crime, and education in America. He went on to say the Memorial would be "an action-oriented program that we think will carry on his concerns, his actions, his efforts to work on so many of the problems in this country that have no solutions". He was joined at the press conference by his sisters, Patricia Kennedy Lawford and Jean Kennedy Smith, as well as dozens of Kennedy family friends and aides.Kennedy's widow Ethel Kennedy did not attend the press conference, but was nearby, in a second-floor bedroom of Hickory Hill on doctor's orders, awaiting the birth of her eleventh child. She issued a statement saying it was the hope of her husband's family and friends that the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial would carry forward the ideals he worked for during his lifetime: "He wanted to encourage the young people and to help the disadvantaged and discriminated against both here and abroad, and he wanted to promote peace in the world. These will be the goals of the memorial. "The memorial and other projects started in Kennedy's memory were later collectively renamed Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights.
Awards === Human Rights Award ===The Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award was created by Kathleen Kennedy Townsend in 1984 to honor individuals around the world who show courage and have made a significant contribution to human rights in their country.In addition to receiving a financial award, laureates work with the organization on human rights-related projects. Since 1984, awards have been given to 43 individuals and organizations from 25 different countries. The 2009 award was presented by President Barack Obama. In 2009, the RFK Human Rights began a partnership with the California International Law Center (CILC) at the University of California, Davis School of Law focusing on the crisis in Darfur.====Laureates==== Year LaureateCountry or organization2022Maximilienne C. Ngo MbeFelix Agbor Nkongho (Balla)2021Guerline Jozef2020Alessandra Korap Munduruku2019La Unión del Pueblo EnteroAngry Tías & Abuelas of the Río Grande ValleyDetained Migrant Solidarity Committee 2018 Color of Change International Indigenous Youth CouncilMarch For Our LivesUnited We Dream2017Alfredo Romero 2016 Just Leadership USA Andrea C. James2015Natalia Taubina2014Adilur Rahman Khan2013Ragia Omran 2012 Librada Paz  2011 Frank Mugisha 2010 Abel Barrera Hernández 2009  Magodonga MahlanguWomen of Zimbabwe Arise 2008  Aminatou Haidar 2007  Mohammed Ahmed Abdallah 2006  Sonia Pierre 2005  Stephen Bradberry 2004  Delphine Djiraibe 2003  Coalition of Immokalee Workers 2002  Loune Viaud 2001  Darci Frigo 2000  Martin Macwan 1999   Michael Kpakala Francis   1998  Berenice Celeyta Gloria FlorezJaime Prieto 1997  Sezgin Tanrikulu Senal Sarihan 1996  Anonymous Nguyen Dan Que 1995  Kailash Satyarthi  Doan Viet Hoat 1994  Wei JingshengRen Wanding 1993  Bambang Widjojanto 1992  Chakufwa Chihana1991  Avigdor Feldman Raji Sourani 1990  Amilcar Mendez Urizar 1989  Fang Lizhi 1988  Gibson Kamau Kuria 1987  Kim Geun-taeIn Jae-keun 1986 Zbigniew Bujak Adam Michnik1985 Allan BoesakBeyers NaudeWinnie Madikizela-Mandela 1984  CoMadres=== Book Award ===The Robert F. Kennedy Book Award was founded in 1980, with the proceeds from Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.'s biography, ''Robert Kennedy and His Times''. Each year, the organization presents an award to the book which "most faithfully and forcefully reflects Robert Kennedy's purposes – his concern for the poor and the powerless, his struggle for honest and even-handed justice, his conviction that a decent society must assure all young people a fair chance, and his faith that a free democracy can act to remedy disparities of power and opportunity. "====Winners====* 2023 - ''The Third Reconstruction: America's Struggle for Racial Justice in the Twenty-First Century'' by Peniel E. Joseph* 2022 - ''The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together'' by Heather McGhee and ''America on Fire: The Untold History of Police Violence and Black Rebellion Since the 1960s'' by Elizabeth Hinton* 2021 – ''Unworthy Republic:The Dispossession of Native Americans and the Road to Indian Territory'' by Claudio Saunt* 2020 – ''Dying of Whiteness: How the Politics of Racial Resentment Is Killing America's Heartland'' by Jonathan Metzl* 2019 – ''American Prison: A Reporter's Undercover Journey into the Business of Punishment'' by Shane Bauer* 2018 – ''Not a Crime to Be Poor: The Criminalization of Poverty in America'' by Peter Edelman / ''The Blood of Emmett Till'' by Timothy Tyson* 2017 – ''Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond* 2016 – ''Once in a Great City: A Detroit Story'' by David Maraniss* 2015 – ''The Crusades of Cesar Chavez'' by Miriam Pawel* 2014 – ''The Great Dissent'' by Thomas Healy and special recognition to ''March: Book One'' by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell* 2013 – ''The Price of Inequality'' by Joseph Stiglitz* 2012 – ''The Justice Cascade'' by Kathryn Sikkink* 2011 – ''The Big Short'' by Michael Lewis* 2010 – ''Ordinary Injustice'' by Amy Bach* 2009 – ''The Dark Side'' by Jane Mayer* 2008 – ''Going Down Jericho Road'' by Michael Honey* 2007 – ''The Great Deluge'' by Douglas Brinkley* 2006 – ''Mirror to America'' by John Hope Franklin* 2005 – ''Perilous Times'' by Jeffrey Stone and ''We Are All the Same'' by Jim Wooten* 2004 – ''Ultimate Punishment'' by Scott Turow* 2003 – ''At the Hands of Persons Unknown'' by Philip Dray and ''A Problem from Hell'' by Samantha Power* 2002 – ''American Patriots'' by Gail Buckley* 2001 – ''Without Sanctuary'' by James Allen and ''Blood of the Liberals'' by George Packer* 2000 – ''Mandela: The Authorised Biography'' by Anthony Sampson and ''No Shame in My Game'' by Katherine Newman* 1999 – ''Walking with the Wind'' by John Lewis and Michael D'Orso* 1998 – ''Race, Crime and the Law'' by Randall Kennedy and ''The Soldiers' Tale'' by Samuel Hynes* 1997 – ''Worse Than Slavery'' by David M. Oshinsky* 1996 – ''Circumstantial Evidence: Death, Life, and Justice in a Southern Town'' by Pete Earley and ''The Politics of Rage: George Wallace, the Origins of the New Conservatism, and the Transformation of American Politics'' by Dan T. Carter* 1995 – ''Speak Now Against the Day'' by John Egerton* 1994 – ''Taming the Storm: The Life and Times of Judge Frank M. Johnson, Jr., and the South's Fight Over Civil Rights'' by Jack Bass and special recognition to Herbert Block for ''Herblock: A Cartoonist's Life''* 1993 – ''Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit'' by Vice President Al Gore* 1992 – ''Praying for Sheetrock'' by Melissa Fay Greene* 1991 – ''The Long Haul'' by Myles Horton and Herbert and Judith Kohl and ''The Burning Season: The Murder of Chico Mendes and the Fight for the Amazon Rain Forest'' by Andrew Revkin* 1990 – ''Among Schoolchildren'' by Tracy Kidder and ''Big Sugar'' by Alec Wilkinson* 1989 – ''A Bright Shining Lie'' by Neil Sheehan and ''Rachel and Her Children'' by Jonathan Kozol* 1988 – ''Beloved'' by Toni Morrison and ''Song in a Weary Throat'' by Pauli Murray* 1987 – ''Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference,'' by David J. Garrow* 1986 – ''Common Ground: A Turbulent Decade in the Lives of Three American Families'' by J. Anthony Lukas and ''Reaping the Whirlwind: The Civil Rights Movement in Tuskegee'' by Robert Norrell* 1984 – ''Children of War'' by Roger Rosenblatt* 1983 – ''Let the Trumpet Sound: The Life of Martin Luther King, Jr.'' by Stephen B. Oates* 1982 – ''The Child Savers'' by Peter S. Prescott* 1981 – ''Civilities and Civil Rights: Greensboro, North Carolina, and the Black Struggle for Freedom'' by William Chafe===Journalism Award===The Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award was established in 1968 by a group of reporters covering Kennedy's presidential campaign and "honors those who report on issues that reflect Kennedy's concerns including human rights, social justice and the power of individual action in the United States and around the world." Entries include insights into the causes, conditions and remedies of injustice and critical analysis of relevant public policies, programs, attitudes and private endeavors.Led by a committee of six independent journalists, the Awards are judged by more than fifty journalists each year. Previous winners include World News anchor Diane Sawyer.
See also *List of human rights organisations
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