Helena Kennedy, Baroness Kennedy of The Shaws

Early life and education

Legal career

Politics

Academia

Personal life

Honours

• Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts
• Fellow of the City and Guilds of London Institute
• Member of the Académie Universelle des Cultures
• 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, University of Cambridge, 2010
• Honorary Fellow, School of Oriental and African Studies, 2011
• Honorary Doctorate of Law, Plymouth University, 2012
• Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 2014

  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, where the actor verbally insulted and attempted to kiss feminist Kate Millett
• 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
• 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
• President, Women of the Year Lunch
• Chair, JUSTICE
• 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
• Trustee, KPMG Foundation
• Chancellor of Oxford Brookes University
• Chancellor of Sheffield Hallam University
• Chair, British Council
• Chair, Human Genetics Commission
• President of the National Children's Bureau
• Kennedy chaired the Power Commission, 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
• Vice-President of the Haldane Society
• Vice-President of the Association of Women Barristers
• Patron, London International Festival of Theatre
• Patron, Institute for Learning http://www.ifl.ac.uk
• Patron, Liberty
• Patron, UNLOCK, The National Association of Ex-Offenders
• Patron, Debt Doctors Foundation UK
• Patron, Tower Hamlets Summer University
• Patron,
• 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
• Chair, Reading Borough Council's Commission of Inquiry into the health, environmental and safety aspects of the Atomic Weapons Establishment at Aldermaston
• Chair, Royal Colleges of Pathologists' and of Pædiatrics' Inquiry into Sudden Infant Death
• 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
• Vice President of the Campaign for Homosexual Equality

  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.