| 6 Feb 2012 | 5:00pm - 7:00pm | Mill Lane Lecture Room 9 | |
- Description
Description
Humanitas Visiting Professor in Women's Rights 2012: Baroness Helena Kennedy
The Humanitas Chair in Women's Rights has been made possible by the generous support of Mrs Carol Saper.
Baroness Helena Kennedy, leading barrister and an expert in human rights law, civil liberties and constitutional issues, will give a series of three public lectures and a concluding symposium on The Illusion of Inclusion: Women and the Law.
Abstract
In 1992 Helena Kennedy wrote a seminal work on women and the criminal justice system called Eve Was Framed. She updated the book in 2003 and is using this lecture to review the subsequent changes which have taken place but also the challenges which remain for women in the courts as defendants, victims and as lawyers. She will argue that a veneer of equal opportunity and fairness now exists but the system itself resists fundamental change because of law's role in maintaining the status quo and its inability to counter the power of vested interests. She will consider the role of women judges and their scarcity in positions of seniority within the judiciary.
Further events in this series:
The lectures are free and open to all, no registration required.
About Helena Kennedy
Helena Kennedy is a leading barrister and an expert in human rights law, civil liberties and constitutional issues. She is a member of the House of Lords and chair of Justice, the British arm of the International Commission of Jurists. She is a bencher of Gray’s Inn and Principal of Mansfield College, Oxford. She has been the chair of Charter 88, the Human Genetics Commission and the British Council. She also chaired the Power Inquiry, which reported on the state of British democracy. She has received honours for her work on human rights from the governments of France and Italy and has been awarded more than thirty honorary doctorates. She is currently acting in cases connected to terrorism.
