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Helena Kennedy Centre

Helena Kennedy Centre

Helena Kennedy Centre

The Helena Kennedy Centre for International Justice is a leading centre for social justice and human rights. It provides a vibrant environment at the cutting edge of legal and criminal justice practice which prepares students for excellence in their chosen professional career.

The centre is home to a range of social justice and human rights activities that include:

  • research and scholarship work
  • global engagement
  • impact on policy
  • professional training and advocacy

Its central values are those of widening access to justice and education, the promotion of human rights, ethics in legal practice, equality and a respect for human dignity in overcoming social injustice.

The law is the bedrock of a nation; it tells us who we are, what we value, who has power and who hasn't. Helena Kennedy QC

The Helena Kennedy Centre's scope of expertise covers:

  • human rights
  • criminology
  • law
  • policing
  • probation

The centre works on the high profile projects in a variety of human rights and social justice areas. Research and projects concern Modern Day Slavery, gender-based violence, hate crime and many more.

Street at night

Living within a Public Spaces Protection Order

 The impacts of policing anti-social behaviour on people experiencing street homelessness
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News

A man with a sign saying Free Uighur

Big brands 'at risk of using forced labour cotton'

Sheffield Wire covers a recent report by Professor Laura Murphy which found 103 global brands are at risk of having cotton produced through forced labour in the Xinjiang region of China in their supply chains.

Illustration by Jialun Deng

China cannot silence me

Nyrola Elimä, in her powerful essay published by The New Yorker, speaks about the crimes committed against her family and other Uyghurs in Xinjiang.

a person typing on their computer

Jewish Emancipation in Nineteenth Century Britain

Francis Goldsmid - Barrister, Legislator, Human Rights Campaigner, Religious Reformer and Philanthropist. Find out more thanks to Dr Andrew Watson's presentation.

Francis Goldsmid (PPTX, 4.2MB)

Featured projects

A worker in a factory

Built on Repression

The  very floors we work on could be made with forced labour

International Finance Corporation performance standards

Financing & Genocide

"Financing & Genocide" presents credible evidence that International Finance Corporation financing is contributing to companies committing gross human rights abuses against Uyghur peoples in the Uyghur Region

Magnifying glass with the distorted picture of a forest in the background

Understanding the impact of inspection on probation

This report outlines the findings from a British Academy/Leverhulme Trust funded study on the impact of inspection on probation, written by Dr Jake Phillips

Part of the Social and Economic Research Institute

Leading pioneering research in the fields of law, economics, education and more

Social and Economic Research Institute