Robert F Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights

RFK Human Rights advocates for human rights issues and pursues strategic litigation to hold governments accountable at home and around the world. We foster a social good approach to business, celebrate agents of change, and to ensure change that lasts, we educate millions of students about human rights, training the next generation of leaders. We work with the bravest people on earth—partners at home and around the world—to realize Robert F. Kennedy’s dream of a more just and peaceful world. Working to expose injustice and heal pain and suffering, our pursuit of racial and economic equality forms the foundation of all our programs at RFK Human Rights.

By fighting for human rights across the United States and around the world, RFK Human Rights seek to realize Robert F. Kennedy’s dream of a more just and peaceful world.

Goal One: Hold Governments Accountable. We protect or secure human rights by holding governments accountable in the courts, with economic consequences, and through public opinion.

Goal Two: Align Business with Human Rights Norms. We tap business as a source of economic opportunity that can lift billions from poverty and create social and economic mobility fostering human rights advances.

Goal Three: Empower a New Generation of Human Rights Defenders. We equip the next generation of human rights defenders by reaching teachers of K-12 youth and university students with a focus on HBCUs.

We run an annual staff retreat that includes leadership and professional development content. Members of staff have access to $2,000 yearly that they can use to develop new hard and soft skills to grow and advance in their leadership capacities.

RFKHR prides itself in adapting quickly and thoughtfully, whether to changes in the human rights landscape, to needed evolution of the societal dialog around racial justice issues, to shifts in the philanthropic landscape for educational programs, or to operational demands imposed by the coronavirus pandemic. ☛ Our pursuit of justice is perennial, but over the past 12-24 months our organization has reaffirmed our deep commitment to racial and economic equity-focused programming. Internally, reflecting on anti-Black racism, we have held open and vulnerable discussion about matters of racial equity. All staff now set annual performance goals relating to racial justice. We have amended all of our guidance and training materials to incorporate the importance of bias awareness. ☛ Covid exerted a huge impact on K-12 education, a key intervention area for RFKHR. Many funders shifted priorities to address new challenges caused by Covid. To adapt, we scaled down school-based program during early Covid, then substantially modified our program model in response to the changing education landscape, while also reinforcing the program’s theories of change and reworking KPIs. By temporarily reducing spend while strategically updating our interventions, we created long-term financial sustainability for the program. ☛ Operationally, in adopting remote work during Covid (2020-present), Leadership took a “people first” attitude that meant ensuring our people WERE safe and FELT safe during the earlier phases. From 2022, as offices reopened, this has meant letting each team determine when and how to return to the office. We’ve avoided strict or universal mandates while valuing in-person interactions when and where possible.