Helena Kennedy QC
Baroness Helena Kennedy QC is one of Britain's most distinguished lawyers. She has spent her professional life giving voice to those who have least power within the system, championing civil liberties and promoting human rights. She also undertakes judicial review, public inquiries and sex discrimination work.
Baroness Kennedy is a member of the Doughty Street Chambers in London and in her practice of law as a barrister she has acted in many prominent cases including the Brighton Bombing Trial, Guildford Four Appeal, the bombing of the Israeli Embassy, the abduction of Baby Abbie Humphries and a number of key domestic violence and terrorism cases. She chaired an inquiry for the Royal College of Pathologists and the Royal College of Pediatrics and Child Health into sudden infant death, in the aftermath of miscarriages of justice where mothers were wrongly convicted of murdering their babies.
In 1997, Baroness Kennedywas elevated to the House of Lords where she is a Labour peer. She has published two books on how the justice system is failing women, Eve was Framed: Women and British Justice and Eve Was Shamed: How British Justice is Failing Women, and has written and broadcasted on many issues over the years. She was the founding force behind the creation of the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights at Oxford University, and has held many prominent positions throughout her career, including: Principal of Mansfield College, Oxford (2011–2018); Chair of Justice, the British arm of the International Commission of Jurists; bencher of Gray’s Inn; President of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London; Chair of Charter 88 (1992–1997) a British pressure group that advocated constitutional and electoral reform; Chair of the Human Genetics Commission (1998–2007); and Chair of the British Council (1998–2004). She also chaired the Power Inquiry, which reported on the state of British democracy and produced the Power Report in 2006.
Currently, she has taken on the role of Director to the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute. She directs the Institute’s work upholding the rule of law and human rights globally.
Helena was profiled for ATLAS by Catherine Dunmore, a Solicitor of England & Wales specialising in human rights and international criminal law. Learn more about Catherine’s work at the end of this profile.
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What drew you to a career in human rights and international law and what were your first steps?
I come from a working class background, growing up in the tenements of Glasgow. My family were Catholics, and I grew up in a community and in schools with an ethos centred around becoming a ‘good person’. As a small girl, I recall standing by my father as he queued hoping for casual labour, and I remember women coming to my mother to discuss alcoholic and abusive partners. My mother always shared what my family had. For example, we heard our young female neighbour being battered and my mother gave our savings to her, to help her return to her family. My mother taught me to never treat anyone as less than myself, but that respect is earned and not just a result of someone’s status.
I was a bookish child, who absorbed everything and loved school. I had great teachers, was encouraged to debate and quickly became politically aware. I was absolutely driven and wanted to be a barrister for ‘ordinary people’. Without connections, I fought hard to find my pupillage with a criminal lawyer. I immediately loved the courtroom stimulus, dealing with the human condition and accessing a world impenetrable to most working class people.
My qualification as a barrister in 1972 tallied with the arrival of the women’s movement in Britain. I attended women’s meetings, we debated equal pay and sex discrimination and analysed society’s power structures – it was the most interesting time. Whilst I was qualifying, I set up a legal advice centre with a community worker friend in Waterloo, London. I worked with the National Council for Civil Liberties and the Free Representation Unit, which made me see the law in a different way. The law was not delivering for women.
What have been the high points of your career thus far?
Throughout the 1980s, I increasingly spoke out on discrimination faced by women and racial minorities at the bar, the maleness of the law and its failings on issues including rape and domestic violence. I was often seen as a pain in the neck – but when you want change, that’s often how you will be seen! I was elected to the Bar Council, and nothing was as daunting as standing before a room of male peers to explain how women were discriminated against. The Bar Council set up a Committee, chaired by Sir Stephen Sedley, and the real experiences of women and minority groups at the bar were exposed. Ultimately, if you want to have an impact, it can be important to participate in institutional movements to create change.
I was made QC in 1991, but the concept hadn’t even occurred to me until late in the day. As women, we often wait to be asked, wait for affirmation and persuasion, to avoid being seen as pushy, aggressive and overambitious. I had gone to battle throughout my career in court, but felt uncomfortable personally asking something for myself. I continued working on women’s issues, but also broader civil liberties issues including freedom of assembly, free speech, racism and LGBTI+ harassment. I worked on big terrorist trials, relating to Ireland, Islamic extremism and the Israeli Embassy bombing. I also won the world’s first case about transgender rights, at the European Court of Justice, breaking down discriminatory barriers.
I had always written extensively, including a television series called Blind Justice with a woman barrister as the central character. Nevertheless, becoming silk was liberating. Within a year, I wrote my first book, Eve was Framed, just as rape within marriage was finally criminalised in England. It discussed the construction of law around the reasonable man, with male lawmakers in parliaments and religious spheres creating legislation from their perspective. The book was, at the time, very controversial, with judges appearing on television to dispute my assertions. The book was a watershed moment, but there remains resistance to admitting the existence of serious discrimination for defendants, victims, and women as lawyers.
Whilst the ‘normal’ trajectory would have been becoming a judge, I went down the policy road and wanted to influence the development of the rule of law. By the late 1990s, I had ended up in the House of Lords, and realised that the establishment had come to me! I have always seen my role there as championing human rights, particularly for women and children, and encouraging reform of the legislature itself. You are radical when creating new ideas and challenging the status quo, but then you begin to win, these issues are on the agenda and many became mainstream.
Subsequently, I chaired Charter 88, the Human Genetics Commission and the British Council. I served as Principal of Mansfield College, Oxford, and was proud to help establish the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights. My work became increasingly international, and I became first Co-Chair, then subsequently Director to the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute. The International Bar Association brings together 190 bar associations and law societies from around the world, but its Human Rights Institute, founded 25 years ago, retains high levels of independence and can criticise governments and bar associations when they are not protecting the rule of law. I was thrilled to take on the Director role, because of real worries over the global rise of populism and the resulting attacks on human rights and the rule of law.I also wanted gender mainstreamed throughout all legal organisations, to improve the way the law delivers for women, and provide increased opportunities and training for young lawyers.
What are some of the challenges that you have faced?
When I entered the law, there were not many people like me. Only 6-7% of barristers were women, and very few were working class. The advice given to me was ‘do not rock the boat’. It wasn’t sexy to want gender equality and justice, or to be labelled a feminist. Women often missed out on pupillage if they didn’t ‘conform’ and have the ‘right’ background. Women who did get pupillage often brushed off the sexual harassment they faced. We all faced harassment and inappropriate behaviour, and had to deal with it in order to get on. Even if women got pupillage, they were often not invited to become men’s colleagues and equals through tenancy in Chambers. Women had to play the game, and play it by the men’s rules. Whilst times have moved on, there are still serious problems, as I all too often hear from young women, particularly those from racial minorities.
It wasn’t always an easy time and the battles were raw, but it was also a wonderful time as we were making change. Happily now many more people from diverse backgrounds enter the profession, although often heavily burdened with debt. Yet, the legal profession remains weighed down by the advantages that come to those from privileged backgrounds. The education system is disgracefully disadvantaging ordinary folk, alongside the ways in which pupillages and training contracts are allocated. The hierarchy of opportunities remains. The business of paralegaling has emerged, with the struggle to move up from these low paid roles to become a practitioner. Many young law students, particularly women, spend huge sums to never ultimately practise. We are creating a new class system within the law. This needs addressing.
In 2018, I wrote Misjustice, and about the gains made for women. Yet, so often, women remain held back from senior positions. It is still that much harder for women to get to the top, despite the fact that we enrich the law, and the way it is delivered. I remember during the miners’ strikes, big jury trials were held in the north of England. I had small children and just could not take these cases. Great things were happening in our nation, and as a mother I just had to sit on the sidelines. Later, I was asked to assist rape prosecutions in ex-Yugoslavia, but could not contemplate living there without my children and partner. I turned down many opportunities, which the men around me did not.
As a QC, I had generally prepared at home and had my briefs delivered there. However, on another occasion, my child had a fever. I was due to make my final speech to the jury at a murder trial in Sheffield and simply could not tell a court my child was unwell. Meanwhile my partner, a surgeon, was undertaking a long operation. Fortunately, one of my girl friends went straight round and rallied to help. We are so lucky as women to have a cohort of supportive friends. Awful moments can happen in both your professional and life. You miss school events, you feel guilty, but thankfully my children never thought of me as an absent parent. Working patterns and behaviours are not designed well for many parents, although Covid-19 may push us to reassess our practices.
Do you have any advice for people, particularly women, who are embarking on a career in human rights or international law?
The law needs good women. We need women to join us, in every different aspect of the law and the way it is delivered. We must embrace intersectionality. We need you, the younger generation, to challenge our notion of the law. You can come from a working class background, or another minority or disadvantaged background, and make a difference. You bring a different experience, which should be embraced. Although it is important to remember, without surrendering what you believe in, that you have to be strategic about how you want to make change.
I always tell women to add heft and colour to your work. Sit on school or theatre boards, support community groups, do something outside of the law. It will make your work infinitely richer. I previously sat on the board of The Independent newspaper. It was a fantastic experience understanding financial and commercial implications, skills which transferred to my later legal work. Also, learn how to read financial accounts and spreadsheets, it is crucial in any domain to know how money works.
I am firmly in favour of women finding their ways to be connected, to support and help each other. We have to talk to women about their ambitions, to share career opportunities and focus on the individual, not just what our institutions might want. The battle continues, and I love the idea that ATLAS exists for women lawyers.
Helena was profiled for ATLAS by Catherine Dunmore, a Solicitor of England & Wales specialising in human rights and international criminal law. She is currently a Technical Specialist on Judicial Affairs and Conflict-Related Sexual Violence for the United Nations Development Programme in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where she previously worked as a Consultant. She completed her training contract at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer in London, including a secondment to Oxfam’s legal team, and subsequently practised in international arbitration with Hogan Lovells in Paris. More recently, she was a Programme Lawyer for the International Bar Association's Human Rights Institute and a Humanitarian Sexual and Gender-based Violence Advisor for Save the Children. Catherine also has experience working for the Office of the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court, Human Rights Watch, REDRESS, the T.M.C. Asser Instituut and the Sri Lanka Campaign for Peace and Justice and has worked on death penalty cases through Amicus in Florida. Catherine received an LLM with Collaborative Program in Women and Gender Studies from the University of Toronto, and an LLB from the University of Essex.