Sir Geoffrey Nice QC, formerly the lead prosecutor in the trial of Slobodan Milošević at the UN’s International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, is the Chair of the YJC. Sir Geoffrey has been a barrister since 1971 and served as a part time judge in England between 1984 and 2018. He is director of the Geoffrey Nice Foundation and was Chair of the Uyghur Tribunal and China Tribunal.

Baroness Helena Kennedy QC is patron of the YJC. She is a leading barrister and an expert in human rights law, civil liberties and constitutional issues. She is Director of IBAHRI, 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 President of the School of Oriental and African studies, University of London. She was the Chair of Charter 88 from 1992 to 1997, the Human Genetics Commission from 1998 to 2007 and the British Council from 1998 to 2004. 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. 

Lord David Alton of Liverpool is patron of the YJC. He has served as a member of the House of Commons and, for more than 20 years, has been an Independent Crossbench Life Peer. In 1972, while still a student, he was elected to the Liverpool City Council as the youngest city councillor in Britain. In 1979, he became the youngest member of the House of Commons. He is one of the foremost campaigners for Article 18 rights in any legislature, having chaired All-Party Parliamentary Groups on North Korea, Pakistan, Sudan, Organ Harvesting, Genocide and many others. He has been instrumental in developing the law relating to mass atrocity crimes in the UK.