Spotlight

This Week’s Spotlight on Human Rights

RFK Human Rights Award Laureate brings LGBTQ+ activism, immigration rights together in life’s work

Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights’ 2024 Human Rights Award recipient Arely Westley, a trans-Latinx Honduran woman, knows well the fate of many of her sisters. She escaped from her native country of Honduras just two years after transgender activist Vicky Hernández was murdered on the streets of San Pedro Sula in 2009.


In Shift, Biden Issues Order Allowing Temporary Border Closure to Migrants

President Biden issued an executive order on Tuesday that prevents migrants from seeking asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border when crossings surge, a dramatic election-year move to ease pressure on the immigration system and address a major concern among voters.


The first woman elected to lead Mexico faces pressing gender-related issues

Claudia Sheinbaum’s name will go down in Mexican history. The governing party candidate won Mexico’s presidential election on Sunday, a turning point in a mostly conservative nation that for more than two centuries has been exclusively ruled by men. Elsewhere in Latin America, women have led countries including Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Guyana, Nicaragua, Honduras, Ecuador, El Salvador, Panama, Haiti and Costa Rica.


Haiti: human rights safeguards and transparency must guide security mission deployment

In a public statement issued today, Amnesty International is raising concerns about the lack of transparency regarding the establishment of human rights safeguards for the Multinational Security Support (MSS) Mission in Haiti, that is expected to be deployed in the coming months.

New year, new us. Same mission.

Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights is rebranding to honor the legacy of our founder and hero, Mrs. Ethel Skakel Kennedy. From now on, we will proudly be known as the Robert & Ethel Kennedy Human Rights Center

While our name is changing, our mission and work remain the same. We will continue to fight injustice, advance human rights, and hold governments accountable around the world in 2026 and beyond.