Robert & Ethel Kennedy Human Rights Center (formerly the "Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights" and 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. Robert F. Kennedy's daughter, Kerry Kennedy, serves as the organization's President.

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.Staff Writer (October 30, 1968). "RFK Memorial Created" The Hartford Courant, p. 7.

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 can partner with the RFK Center on projects to advance their human rights work, benefiting from the resources and technologies at the foundation's disposal. Some have achieved their goals, some are in exile from their home country. The majority continue to live in their home country and work with the support of the center to establish the human rights they are working for.

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 organization2025Jeanette VizguerraElizabeth OyerJanet Mills20242023Parlamento del Pueblo Xinka2022Maximilienne 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

Ripple of Hope Award Each year, the Robert F. Kennedy Ripple of Hope Award honors exemplary leaders across government, business, advocacy, and entertainment who have demonstrated an unwavering commitment to social change and worked to protect and advance equity, justice, and human rights. The name of the award is inspired by Kennedy's Ripple of Hope speech in 1966.

Laureates +YearLaureates2025Martin Cabrera, Jr.

Earvin “Magic” Johnson

Stefano Lucchini

Darren Walker

Stephen Colbert2024Susan Clark Livingston

Lin-Manuel Miranda

Antonio Neri

John W. Rogers Jr.

Thomas J. Wilson2023The Edwin Barbey Charitable Trust

Fran Drescher

The January 6th Select Committee Zoe Lofgren Stephanie Murphy Pete Aguilar Liz Cheney Adam Kinzinger Jamie Raskin Bennie G. Thompson Elaine Luria Adam Schiff2022Frank Baker Brian Moynihan

Bill Russell

President Volodymyr Zelensky

Michael Polsky

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle2021Hans Vestberg Deven Parekh

Jose E. Feliciano

Stacey Abrams

Amanda Gorman2020Dr. Anthony Fauci Dolores Huerta

Colin Kaepernick

Dan Schulman

Dan Springer2019Nancy Pelosi Wendy Abrams

Glen Tullman

J. K. Rowling†2018Barack Obama Bruce D. Broussard

Phil Murphy

David Zaslav2017Harry Belafonte Alex Gorsky

Hamdi Ulukaya2016Joseph R. Biden Jr. Scott Minerd

Howard Schultz2015Tim Cook Roger Altman

Marianna Vardinoyannis

John Lewis2014Robert De Niro Tony Bennett

Hilary Rodham Clinton

Donato Tramuto2013Muhammad Yunus John Boyer2012Vincent Mai Taylor Swift2011Al Gore Dennis Mathisen2010George Clooney Marc Spilker2009Bono Wyclef Jean2008Clive Davis Desmond Tutu

Afsaneh BeschlossInitial LaureatesBill Clinton Bob Pittman †=Recipient returned their award.

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 Past winners have been: 2025 - Everyone Who is Gone is Here: The United States, Central America, and the Making of a Crisis by Jonathan Blitzer 2024 - Black Folk: The Roots of the Black Working Class by Blair LM Kelley 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