WELCOME
TO RFK HUMAN RIGHTS SWITZERLAND
Welcome to the official site of RFK Human Rights Switzerland. We are dedicated to promoting and protecting human rights for all through education, advocacy, and litigation, striving for a world where everyone can exercise their fundamental freedoms.
As an independent, Swiss-certified non-profit, all donations directly support our education initiative "Speak Truth To Power." This program empowers people to learn, advocate, and act for universal human rights and social change.
Explore our work and join us in advancing human dignity and tolerance.
Prof. Dr. Helen Keller
RFK Legacy Award 2024 Laureate
Prof. Dr. Helen Keller’s outstanding contributions to human rights and her unwavering dedication to justice have made a profound impact over the course of her career. Therefore, we are proud to announce that Prof. Dr. Helen Keller will be honored with this year’s RFK Legacy Award at our annual Robert F. Kennedy Legacy Gala in Zurich.
Prof. Dr. iur. Helen Keller, LL.M, was born in 1964 and studied law at the University of Zurich. She was subsequently a research associate at the Institute of Law of the University of Zurich from 1989 to 1993. She obtained her doctorate in 1993, followed by an LL.M. at the Collège d’Europe in Bruges, Belgium, a research fellowship at the European Law Research Center at Harvard Law School in 1995, and a further research fellowship at the European University Institute in Florence in 1996.
Helen Keller then held a position as an Oberassistentin at the University of Zurich, in the course of which she led the project to produce a commentary of the Umweltschutzgesetz. In 2001, she was a visiting fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law in Heidelberg.
In 2002, she completed her habilitation at the Faculty of Law of the University of Zurich. From 2002 to 2004, she held the position of professor (ordinaria) for constitutional law at the University of Lucerne, Switzerland. She then took a position as a professor at the University of Zurich, where she taught constitutional, European and international law until 2011.
Helen Keller spent most of 2009 at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, where she worked on a research project concerning friendly settlements before the Court. In 2010, she completed a research fellowship at the Centre for Advanced Studies in Oslo, where her research centered around the question of why states ratify human rights treaties.
From 2008 to 2011, Helen Keller was a member of the United Nations Human Rights Committee. From October 2011 to December 2020, she was a full-time judge at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. Since December 2020, she has served as a judge at the Constitutional Court of Bosnia-Herzegovina.
She has been awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Fribourg in 2018 for her contribution to cross-fertilisation of doctrine and practice. Finally, in 2020 she was awarded the Recognition Prize of the Foundation for Western Ethics and Culture. In 2024, Helen Keller was honoured twice. In June, she received a nomination as part of the "75 Women in 75 Years of Council of Europe History" project, in October the University of Geneva awarded her the title of Dr honouris causa.
Helen Keller is married and the mother of two sons; she lives in Zurich.
Congratulations, Helen Keller!
Marina Pisklakova
RFK Legacy Award 2024 Laureate
Marina Pisklakova is Russia’s leading women’s rights activist. She studied aeronautical engineering in Moscow, and while conducting research at the Russian Academy of Sciences, was startled to discover family violence had reached epidemic proportions.
Because of her efforts, Russian officials started tracking domestic abuse and estimate that, in a single year, close to 15,000 women were killed and 50,000 were hospitalised, while less than one-third of all battered women received medical assistance. With no legislation outlawing the abuse, there were no enforcement mechanisms, support groups, or protective agencies for victims.
In July 1993, Pisklakova founded a hot line for women in distress, later expanding her work to establish the first women’s crisis center in the country. She lobbied for legislation banning abuse, and worked with an openly hostile law enforcement establishment to bring aid to victims and prosecution to criminals. She began a media campaign to expose the violence against women and to educate women about their rights, and regularly appears on radio and television promoting respect for women’s rights. Today her organization ANNA (National Center for the Prevention of Violence) operates a network of 170 crisis centers across Russia and the former Soviet Union.
She is now active not only in combating the scourge of violence against women, but also in preventing the trafficking of women and children. Pisklakova’s efforts have saved countless lives, at great risk to her own.
Congratulations, Marina Pisklakova!
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SPEAK TRUTH TO POWER
The Human Rights education initiative
The Speak Truth to Power program is a human rights education initiative that uses storytelling, interactive learning, and educational resources to provide students with the knowledge they need to advance human rights. The program includes an illustrated text book, a photo exhibition, and a theatre play, all centred around the stories of national & international human rights defenders.
The program builds educator capacity, integrates social-emotional learning, and encourages mindful action. The resources available include lesson plans, video vignettes, dedicated events, workshops and more, and have been used by over 80,000 educators reaching over 2 million students worldwide.
The program is available free-of-charge for schools in Switzerland and offers teachers suggestions for integrating human rights into their curriculum.
THE TIME FOR HUMAN RIGHTS IS NOW
Why support human rights education through Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights in A Country like Switzerland?
Human rights education is essential for creating a world where everyone's dignity and well-being are respected. By supporting RFK Human Rights in Switzerland, you can help ensure that individuals and communities have access to the knowledge and tools they need to advocate for their rights and hold their governments accountable. Through our programs, including the Speak Truth to Power curriculum, students, educators, and activists can learn about human rights issues and how to effectively promote change in their communities.
Your support makes a difference in building a more just and peaceful society for all.
ADIBA QASIM
human rights activist profile
Some of you may have already met Ms. Adiba Qasim at Institute Montana (Zugerberg) or at our gala in Bad Ragaz in 2022. Adiba is a Yazidi woman who had to flee the genocide that took place on her people in 2014. She managed to reach Switzerland, where she is attending the University of Geneva and engaging in activism for human rights - and specifically refugee rights.
HUMAN RIGHTS ILLUSTRATED THROUGH ART
Together with VforArt we created a workshop series on Human Rights & Art. Here are the PowerPoint presentation and the educator guide (in English and German).
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ROBERT F. KENNEDY HUMAN RIGHTS
Since 1968
Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights was created in 1968 to carry on the legacy and forge ahead with the unfinished work―all in pursuit of the dream of a more just and peaceful world.
The scope and reach of Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights has expanded substantially over the years, yet since its inception the organization has remained focused on the protection of civic space―the freedoms of assembly, association, and expression; the right to dissent without fear of reprisal or persecution; the most basic of rights upon which all others are based.
Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Foundation Switzerland has been founded in 2015 by Dr. Christoph Karlo to expand this important scope to central Europe.
“Our answer is the world’s hope; it is to rely on youth. The cruelties and the obstacles of this swiftly changing planet will not yield to obsolete dogmas and outworn slogans. It cannot be moved by those who cling to a present which is already dying, who prefer the illusion of security to the excitement and danger which comes with even the most peaceful progress. This world demands the qualities of youth: not a time of life but a state of mind, a temper of the will, a quality of imagination, a predominance of courage over timidity, of the appetite for adventure over the life of ease...”