Geneva Summit Archives - UN Watch

Global Media Impact of the 2020 Geneva Summit for Human Rights

unwatch — Fri, 28 Feb 2020 21:28:44 +0000

The 2020 Geneva Summit succeeded in providing an unprecedented global platform for champions of human rights, dissidents, victims, and families of political prisoners who have suffered abuses in some of the world’s worst dictatorships: Iran, Russia, China, Turkey, Venezuela, Cuba, Pakistan, Qatar and Mauritania.
Contrasted with the inaction and indifference of the United Nations Human Rights Council, UN Watch’s shadow human rights summit spotlighted urgent testimonies about gross and systematic human rights abuses, causing them to be broadcast and reported by the world’s leading media, including CNN, Time Magazine, Newsweek, Reuters, Agence France Presse, Germany’s Deutsche Welle, French newspapers L’Obs and L’Opinion, Spain’s EFE newswire, Swedish daily Svenska Dagbladet, Public Radio International, Canada’s Maclean’s Magazine, Belgium’s La Libre and L’Echo, and many more.
Moreover, within Switzerland itself, the Geneva Summit was covered across the country in French, German and Italian, with multiple reports on the different speakers and country situations appearing in Radio Télévision Suisse, Swiss German Radio, Radiotelevisione svizzera, Zurich dailies Tages Anzeiger and Blick, Geneva’s Le Temps and the Tribune de Genève.

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Issue 626: UN Rejects Richard Falk's Report Accusing Israel of Apartheid, UNW Blasts Dictators, Geneva Summit Wins Global Media Platform

unwatch — Fri, 17 Mar 2017 10:31:54 +0000

UN Chief Rejects Richard Falk’s UN Report Accusing Israel of Apartheid

Secretary-General Antonió Guterres rejected a report published by ECSWA, a Beirut-based agency of the world body that is comprised of 18 Arab states, which accuses Israel of “apartheid.”
The report’s chief author is Richard Falk, a former UN official who was condemned repeatedly by the UK and other governments for antisemitism.
U.S. ambassador Nikki Haley demanded the UN withdraw the report. UN Watch complained to Reuters for reporting the story while failing to cite Falk’s ignominious record of antisemitism and 9/11 conspiracy theories. READ MORE
UN Watch Blasts Human Rights Council For Ignoring World’s Worst Abuses

Click here for Video
After North Korea, Venezuela, China, Syria, Iran and Russia congratulated themselves while attacking the U.S., Britain, Canada, Holland and Israel, UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer was given 90 seconds to take the floor at the UN Human Rights Council and set the record straight:
“Mr. President, let the record show that everything we just heard from some of the world’s worst human rights abusers has no basis in law or in fact. When will this council live up to its own Charter and address the real human rights abuses taking place in the following regions:
In Afghanistan: Misogyny.
In Algeria: Excessive force.
In Belarus: Authoritarianism.
In Burundi: Genocide warning.
In Cambodia: Violence against women.
In Central African Republic: Sexual abuse by peacekeepers.
In China: Denial of basic freedoms.
In Congo: Child labor.
In Cuba: Dictatorship…” READ MORE, VIDEO

UN Watch’s 9th Human Rights Summit Wins Global Platform for Dissidents

UN Watch’s recent 9th Geneva Summit for Human Rights gave dissidents a global platform through reports that appeared in media agencies around the world. UN Watch is deeply grateful to Voxia Communication, a Swiss public relations firm, for its instrumental support.
The Guardian: “In an age of autocracy, meet the dissidents speaking truth to power”
Strongmen are back in vogue, but these six people are determined to defy the despots.
The Independent: “UK accused of ‘blatant double standard’ over arms sales to Saudi Arabia”
James Jones, a British filmmaker who exposed the Gulf state’s human rights abuses in his documentary Saudi Arabia Uncovered, said Britain remains “closer than ever” to its ally despite a litany of human rights abuses… He spoke on the issue at the Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy, held at the start of the UN Human Rights Council session at Switzerland’s Palais des Nations.
Bild: “Wie Diktatoren den Menschenrechts-Rat zerstören”
“How dictators destroy the UN Human Rights Council”
Representatives of the most brutal regimes in the world will meet from Monday in Geneva—for the next session of the UN Human Rights Council. Among current member states: Saudi Arabia, Cuba, Venezuela, China.
RTS (Swiss TV): “la jeune femme de 20 ans témoigne de l’horreur de Daech”
“Shirin: the young 20-year-old woman testifies on the horrors of ISIS”
This young woman was kidnapped and sold to several people before fleeing her condition as a sex slave.
(TV news broadcast – in French)
Al Jazeera: Interview with Hillel Neuer
Mr. Neuer spoke about how the Geneva Summit took place on the eve of the U.N. Human Rights Council opening its annual session. While abusers like China, Cuba, and Saudi Arabia were elected, we were giving a global platform to their victims, and to courageous activists who were persecuted in Iran, Mauritania and Venezuela. We urged the U.N. to take action to protect the victims—like Raif Badawi, the jailed Saudi human rights hero.
France24 English: “Turkey is the biggest jail for journalists in the world”
Dündar has become a symbol of the crackdown on the press in Turkey under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. He spoke to FRANCE 24 from Geneva about the state of press freedom in his home country.
Deutsche Welle (Spanish): “Cumbre de Derechos Humanos en Ginebra”
“Human Rights Summit in Geneva”
Activists, journalists and politicians want to alert the international community to human rights abuses. In that forum, our special envoy, Nocole Frölich, interviewed Antonietta Ledezma, daughter of the Venezuelan mayor imprisoned for two years.
BBC Vietnam: “Dang Xuan Dieu speech on human rights in Geneva”
Mr. Dang told the BBC from Switzerland: “This is the first time I’ve had the opportunity to speak before an important conference. I do this while my health is still not recovered after many years in prison. However, what the conference needs is my presence as a direct victim of bone, flesh and experiences on the status of human rights violations in Vietnam.”
Tribune de Genève: «L’Arabie saoudite, c’est Daech avec du pétrole!»
“Saudi Arabia is Daesh with oil!”
Shocking Documentary: Filmed with a hidden camera, James Jones’ documentary reveals the secrets of the Kingdom withheld from the West. He is interviewed in Geneva.
Tribune de Genève: Une esclave sexuelle Yézidie honorée à Genève
“Yazidi sex slave honored in Geneva”
Shirin, a representative of the Yazidi minority in Iraq, will receive a women’s rights award presented by 25 NGOs in Geneva. She was sold as a sex slave at the age of 17 and raped by nine jihadis of the Islamic State.
Radio France Internationale: Antonietta Ledezma: “En Venezuela sólo los demócratas van a la cárcel”
“Antonietta Ledezma: In Venezuela only the Democrats go to prison”
RFI spoke with Antonietta Ledezma after appearing in front of an international forum and United Nations authorities. The young activist spoke about the health of her father and the harassment of the regime of Nicholas Maduro to his family whenever they travel abroad.
El Nacional (From EFE): Antonietta Ledezma: “Lucho por mi padre y por rescatar a mi país”
“Antonietta Ledezma: I fight for my father and for the rescue of my country”
“My struggle is not only for my father, but for all the political prisoners in Venezuela, because I do not want more daughters, more mothers and more parents to go through what I and my family have gone through and keep going through, and what so many families In Venezuela are experiencing,” said Ledezma in an interview at the Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy.
READ MORE

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Issue 625: Alfred Moses's Geneva Summit Remarks

unwatch — Sun, 05 Mar 2017 10:27:03 +0000

Do Human Rights Matter?

Remarks delivered at the 9th Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy, February 21, 2017.
Click here for video.

By Alfred H. Moses

After the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the collapse of the Soviet Union three decades ago, one would suppose that we would be meeting here today proclaiming the triumph of universal human rights. Sadly, this is not the case. We are weeping, not celebrating. In these brief remarks I would like to try to answer two questions: How we came to this situation; what we can do about it.

When the Berlin Wall came down and European communism disappeared, Francis Fukuyama famously predicted that, with communism vanquished, liberal democracy would become the final human form of government, marking the end of a phase of history that began (borrowing from the German idealist Friedrich Hegel) with the French Revolution’s call for individual human rights. Fukuyama’s prediction was narrowly focused and unwittingly arrogant. He was writing from the perspective of a Western intellectual who ignored the fact that more than 80 percent of the world’s population did not live in the West.

But even if we stay within Fukuyama’s narrow framework, human rights in the West are not in the ascendency. That time has passed. The halcyon period for the advancement of human rights was right after World War II when the world still reverberated with revelations of the atrocities by Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, totalitarian Japan and, one should add, the Soviet Union (although full disclosure of Soviet barbarism did not occur until after Stalin’s death).

Immediately after the war, communism, as the self-proclaimed champion of the working class, chose not to oppose human rights declarations, portraying itself as the liberator, not oppressor of mankind, while at the same time ignoring the Soviet Union’s brutal suppression of all opposition to Stalin, real or trumped up.

In the glory days for human rights that followed World War II, the Nobel Peace Laureate, Rene Cassin, authored the Universal Declaration of Human Rights approved by the United Nations General Assembly. This was at a time when Eleanor Roosevelt chaired the U.N. Human Rights Commission. Sadly, this was also the year the world lost its great human rights champion, Mahatma Gandhi.

There were human rights achievements in the decades that followed, most notably in the cause of ending apartheid in South Africa. The saint-like image of Nelson Mandela is still fresh in our minds as we recall his stirring words. Unlike leaders of other national movements, President Mandela called for freedom and equality for all mankind, regardless of nationality, race or religion.

Like Rene Cassin, he believed human rights were universal, not particular. The same can be said for the 39th president of the United States, Jimmy Carter. He made respect for human rights a centerpiece of U.S. foreign policy, replacing the Nixon/Kissinger reliance on realpolitik as the underpinning of U.S. foreign policy.

In the decades that followed things started to unravel, “particularity” overtook “universality,” as the clash of civilizations earlier foreseen by Professor Samuel Huntington became an ever more potent force in world events. The conflict Huntington predicted was between Western civilization and Muslim countries, two different cultures with different world views, histories and religions.

Over the preceding centuries religion had diminished as a political force in Western civilization. No so in those parts of the Muslim world where it remained a powerful political force and call to arms. Much of the conflict within the Muslim world has centered on the division between Shia and Sunni that has its origins in differing views of the legitimate successor to the prophet Mohammed.

But Western intervention in that Sunni/Shia conflict and a condemnation of “infidels” (non-Muslims) by Muslim clergy has led to Fatwas proclaiming holy war or Jihad against the West, in general, and against individual countries, including the United States, in particular. None of us can imagine a similar proclamation by the Pope or the Bishop of Canterbury, let alone by the Chief Rabbi of Israel.

Adding to the mix is tribalism (with its rigid identity creed and code of conduct); tribalism exalts particularity, i.e., tribal identity over all other identities and rejects the very notion of universality, or the dignity of man. Tribalism, extremist religious sects and their ideological lookalikes in the West, such as the White Supremacist movement, are the most extreme forms of particularity.

The White Supremacist movement in my country and Canada distinguishes people on the basis of color which is a code word for country of origin, a notion roundly rejected by Judeo-Christian teaching. I am not saying that the particularity is absent in Western faiths. Both Judaism and Christianity have too often elevated their particularity above their message of universality.

Even more alarming than the clash of civilizations foreseen by Huntington or, some would argue, because of it, we are presently witnessing a turn to heightened nationalism in the West, including in my country, the United States. When President Trump puts his thumb in the air and says, “America First,” the message is clear. Pull up the drawbridge, keep “others” out, particularly immigrants from Muslim countries whom one close advisor to President Trump defames as a threat to “the civilized world,” and therefore not entitled to the protection or sympathy of the West.

The same sentiments are echoed in Europe by Marine Le Pen, leader of France’s National Front, and by leaders of far right political parties in the Netherlands and Germany. In the latter country, the Alternative for Germany Party is likely to become the first far right party to enter the German parliament since the fall of Nazi Germany. Far right parties also dominate in Poland and Hungary and are reportedly gaining strength elsewhere in Europe.

The experts tell us that Jihadist attacks in the United States and Europe are likely to increase in coming years as impoverished Muslims in North Africa and the Middle East grow in number with no hope of progress. Some of them, we are told, will fall under the influence of religious extremists urging them to engage in acts of terrorism promising eternal salvation as their reward. How the West reacts to such attacks may alter the course of its history and negatively impact the lives of its citizens.

A call to vigilance and action is needed to prevent this calamity.

Particularism and heightened nationalism are on the rise elsewhere. Last week there was an article in the Financial Times describing the crackdown on English speakers in the African republic of Cameroon, that represents a blatant call to nationalism and denial of the equality of others.

Vladimir Putin’s Russia is keenly aware of the contest taking place in the world between particularity and universality and seeks to take advantage of the opportunity to aid the extreme right, seeing it as its ally in the fight against universal values and the rights of man.

History has taught us that a skillful blending of the particular and the universal is not only possible, but desirable. Our everyday lives are consumed with the particular – family, community, jobs – but our reason for being cries out to the universal in us. The present march away from universal values will, if not checked, sound the death knell for human rights.

This is ironic. History has taught us that the absence of individual freedom leads to the decay of political power. In other words, a country is only as strong as its citizens’ enjoyment of their individual liberty which is recognized as the inalienable property of the individual. Those rights are best protected by liberal democracies that provide a way to bring about change without destroying the system or toppling authority and for this reason are likely to be more stable than authoritarian/totalitarian societies. Liberal democracies like a teapot can let off steam without self-destructing.

At this point, you may be asking yourself will the world right itself. If you have confidence in man’s essential goodness, the answer is yes. But this is the time for all of us to act in defense of universal human rights and the dignity of man. The longer we wait the harder the struggle will be.

You are human rights heroes. You have witnessed human rights abuses, some of unthinkable brutality. But witnessing, important as it is, is only the beginning. What more do we need to do? Let me suggest a few things.

1. In condemning human rights abuses in your own country, it is right and proper to speak out on behalf of victims and denounce oppressors. This is your duty and obligation, but in the process you need to remember that human rights are universal. They belong to each and every one of us. The denial of human rights for one is the denial of human rights for all humankind.

2. The Four Freedoms proclaimed by President Roosevelt — freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, freedom from fear — are the inalienable property of the individual. They belong to each of us and cannot be particularized.

3. Let’s acknowledge to ourselves that the particular in most forms, whether it be in religious practice, patriotism or community space, is easier to champion than universalism. Let’s face it – most of us derive comfort from our particularism, whether it be in celebrating our religion, nationality, family or other private aspects of our lives. It is comforting, and often more convenient, for us to rejoice in our particularism than to think about abstract notions of universalism and then put them to practice in our daily lives. But without protecting the four freedoms for all, none of us will be truly free.

Yes, universal human rights still matter.

_______

Hundreds of human rights activists, diplomats, and students attended UN Watch’s 9th Geneva Summit for Human Rights, drawing journalists from The Guardian, Le Monde, Reuters, Al Jazeera, and more.

The post Issue 625: Alfred Moses's Geneva Summit Remarks appeared first on UN Watch.

Human rights summit wins global platform for dissidents

unwatch — Thu, 02 Mar 2017 09:05:07 +0000

Last week’s 9th Geneva Summit for Human Rights gave dissidents a global platform through reports that appeared in media agencies around the world.
The Guardian: “In an age of autocracy, meet the dissidents speaking truth to power”
Strongmen are back in vogue, but these six people are determined to defy the despots.
The Independent: “UK accused of ‘blatant double standard’ over arms sales to Saudi Arabia”
James Jones, a British filmmaker who exposed the Gulf state’s human rights abuses in his documentary Saudi Arabia Uncovered, said Britain remains “closer than ever” to its ally despite a litany of human rights abuses… He spoke on the issue at the Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy, held at the start of the UN Human Rights Council session at Switzerland’s Palais des Nations.
Bild: “Wie Diktatoren den Menschenrechts-Rat zerstören”
“How dictators destroy the UN Human Rights Council”
Representatives of the most brutal regimes in the world will meet from Monday in Geneva—for the next session of the UN Human Rights Council. Among current member states: Saudi Arabia, Cuba, Venezuela, China.
RTS (Swiss TV): “la jeune femme de 20 ans témoigne de l’horreur de Daech”
“Shirin: the young 20-year-old woman testifies on the horrors of ISIS”
This young woman was kidnapped and sold to several people before fleeing her condition as a sex slave.
(TV news broadcast – in French)
Al Jazeera: Interview with Hillel Neuer
Mr. Neuer spoke about how our parallel human rights conference last week (www.genevasummit.org) took place on the eve of the U.N. Human Rights Council opening its annual session. While abusers like China, Cuba, and Saudi Arabia were elected, we were giving a global platform to their victims, and to courageous activists who were persecuted in Iran, Mauritania and Venezuela. We urged the U.N. to take action to protect the victims—people like Raif Badawi, the jailed Saudi human rights hero.
Le Monde: “Kim Jong-nam, itinéraire d’un héritier Francophile”
“Kim Jong-nam, profile of a Francophile heir”
Kim Kwang- jin, who helped to finance the regime before he defected in 2003, said the role of Kim Jong-Nam in North Korean financing was more elementary: “From what I know, he was trying to find financing for maintaining his current standard of living rather than finding funds for the regime.”
France24 English: “Turkey is the biggest jail for journalists in the world”
Dündar has become a symbol of the crackdown on the press in Turkey under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. He spoke to FRANCE 24 from Geneva about the state of press freedom in his home country.
Deutsche Welle (Spanish): “Cumbre de Derechos Humanos en Ginebra”
“Human Rights Summit in Geneva”
Activists, journalists and politicians want to alert the international community to human rights abuses. In that forum, our special envoy, Nocole Frölich, interviewed Antonietta Ledezma, daughter of the Venezuelan mayor imprisoned for two years.
BBC Vietnam: “Dang Xuan Dieu speech on human rights in Geneva”
Today, Feb 20, Mr. Dang told the BBC from Switzerland: “This is the first time I’ve had the opportunity to speak before an important conference. I do this while my health is still not recovered after many years in prison. However, what the conference needs is my presence as a direct victim of bone, flesh and experiences on the status of human rights violations in Vietnam.”
Tribune de Genève: «L’Arabie saoudite, c’est Daech avec du pétrole!»
“Saudi Arabia is Daesh with oil!”
Shocking Documentary: Filmed with a hidden camera, James Jones’ documentary reveals the secrets of the Kingdom withheld from the West. He is interviewed in Geneva.
Tribune de Genève: Une esclave sexuelle Yézidie honorée à Genève
“Yazidi sex slave honored in Geneva”
Shirin, a representative of the Yazidi minority in Iraq, will receive a women’s rights award presented by 25 NGOs in Geneva. She was sold as a sex slave at the age of 17 and raped by nine jihadis of the Islamic State (IS).
Radio France Internationale: Antonietta Ledezma: “En Venezuela sólo los demócratas van a la cárcel”
“Antonietta Ledezma: In Venezuela only the Democrats go to prison”
RFI spoke with Antonietta Ledezma after appearing in front of an international forum and United Nations authorities. The young activist spoke about the health of her father and the harassment of the regime of Nicholas Maduro to his family whenever they travel abroad.
El Nacional (From EFE): Antonietta Ledezma: “Lucho por mi padre y por rescatar a mi país”
“Antonietta Ledezma: I fight for my father and for the rescue of my country”
“My struggle is not only for my father, but for all the political prisoners in Venezuela, because I do not want more daughters, more mothers and more parents to go through what I and my family have gone through and keep going through, and what so many families In Venezuela are experiencing,” said Ledezma in an interview at the Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy.
Martinoticias: El Sexto denuncia en Ginebra encarcelamientos sin juicio en Cuba
“El Sexto denounces imprisonment without trial in Cuba”
At the conclusion of his speech, accompanied by a song by the contentious rapper Raudel Collazo (Patriot Squad), El Sexto performed live graffiti art that brought applause from the audience… The annual conference is being held in Geneva before Foreign Ministers meet to inaugurate the session of the United Nations Human Rights Council.
Luzerner Zeitung: Menschenrechtsgipfel zeigt Licht und Schatten medialer Macht auf
“Human rights summit shows the lights and shadow of media power”
The 9th Summit on Human Rights and Democracy in Geneva began with a praise for Switzerland. “Not every country would be open to this event,” said Hillel Neuer, Executive Director of UN Watch, a non-governmental organization in Geneva. It is uncertain whether the summit could be held today in the USA, as it was six years ago. Several of the politically persecuted people who spoke of their situation at the summit are from countries affected by the entry ban imposed by the US and Donald Trump on citizens of Muslim countries.
Luzerner Zeitung: Sprachgewaltig gegen die Autokratie
“Language used against Autocratic violence”
Can Dündar holds up a ballpoint pen. “This is our strongest weapon against authoritarianism,” says the former editor-in-chief of the Turkish newspaper Cumhuriyet. Dündar has been living in exile in Germany since last year. In his home country, he is threatened with imprisonment.

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Quotes from 2017 Geneva Summit Speakers – Victims Bear Witness

unwatch — Tue, 21 Feb 2017 09:37:39 +0000

Quotes from speakers at yesterday’s U.N. opening of the 2017 Geneva Summit for Human Rights, the main session of which is being held today—and webcast live now at www.genevasummit.org, and at the YouTube link below.

Zhanna Nemtsova, daughter of assassinated Russia dissident Boris Nemtsov:

“Fifteen years ago, Russia wouldn’t have been here because it was a democracy . . . We did not have political prisoners in Russia. Now we have more than 100 political prisoners and Russia is an authoritarian regime. . . in only fifteen years, Russia has become a truly authoritarian regime with political prisoners and political repressions. That’s why I think that’s an issue and the United Nations has to pay attention to what’s going on in Russia.”
“We want Russia without political prisoners and free and democratic. Russia without Putin.”
“I was a journalist in Russia. . . And I have never been an activist . . . I led a normal life . . . [] my father was the one responsible for human rights in Russia and for fighting for democracy and I fully supported him. And my father used to say “You know, if you want to join me, you will lose your job. You have to make this choice.” . . . When my father was assassinated, my choice was very obvious and evident. It was my moral choice and I was ready to lose my job.”

Antonietta Ledezma, daughter of imprisoned mayor Antonio Ledezma:

“For Venezuelans it is very important to have this space [the Geneva Summit] to speak up because in our country we feel completely silenced, completely isolated. And for us to know that the world can listen to us is very very important.”
“Today in Venezuela . . . we are suffering the cruelest dictatorship we have ever suffered in my country’s history.”
“I want to talk also about more than 100 women and men who are innocent and today are being held behind bars just for speaking up to this regime.”
“Maduro is a man that has violated all democratic and human rights principles to maintain himself in power. . .”
“I feel the great responsibility when I am here at the United Nations to speak about this because . . . this is what my father has taught me about freedom, about democracy and about human dignity, something that, as Venezuelans, we haven’t been able to see for over twenty years.”
“Today, what I ask all of you is that when you think about Venezuela, think about Antonio Ledezma. Think about our political prisoners and think that today we are having a dictatorship in Venezuela.”
“I would like to know and I would like to understand how come a country like Venezuela whose leader is one of the worst human rights violators, is still on the U.N. Human Rights Council.”
“I will fight with my life and I will even sacrifice my own freedom to be able to say that I live in a free country.”

Mohamed Nasheed, human rights dissident who became president

“We sit here a week before world leaders would gather and deliberate upon the human rights situation in the world. A number of them would be thugs, thieves and murderers. And a number of them also would be apolitical and they would appease these thugs, murderers and thieves, saying that it’s in their strategic interest. They would argue that their cultures, that their religions are different and therefore, they have this right to continue harming us. We are here to see that this doesn’t happen.”
“Clever dictators suck you up. They want your entire life to be erased and reformatted according to their world view and according to how they want you to think. They are not torturing you for the information. . . They are torturing you to erase you, to get you to capitulate, to get you to surrender to the state.”
“I thought if I got elected as a member of parliament, I might have some safety and security. . . I sought election in the capital city Male and they elected me as their MP, but the government arrested me the next day.”
“We were able to galvanize our people to political activism, we were able to amend the constitution, we were able to have our first free and fair elections . . . I returned back to the Maldives, and of course, they arrested me. But the elections were held and I was released and I was fortunate to have won those elections and became the president.”
“I always say and always still believe that it is possible to topple a dictator, but it is not so easy to uproot a dictatorship.”
“The previous regime came back. They toppled me in a coup, and of course again arrested me. I was able to take part in the 2013 elections and I won, but they nullified the elections. They had it again. Again, I won. And they nullified it again. So, they had as many elections as it took them until I was beaten and then again they arrested me.”
“I intend to get back . . . Even if it means going back to jail, I intend to do that. I would call upon everyone here today to work together to subvert the regimes in so many of these countries. Let’s bring down these governments.”
“We can build economic, social and political structures to subvert and destabilize these regimes. I am sure we can do it and I am very sure we can win it.”

Can Dundar, leading Turkish journalist who was imprisoned & targeted for assassination

“I am coming from the world’s biggest jail for journalists. At the moment, we have 150 journalists in jails of Turkey. Among them, my colleagues from my paper . . . the oldest and most prestigious paper in Turkey. editors-in-chief, writers, reporters, lawyers of the paper. Even the tea maker who refused to give tea to the president.”
“Using this military intervention attempt as an excuse for his oppression, Erdogan built up his aggressiveness and oppression and detained more than 15,000 people and 50,000 were fired from their jobs . . . This has been the biggest crackdown in our history. And even the third biggest party’s presidents and 11 parliamentarians are in jail at the moment.”
“Under these circumstances . . .Turkey is having a referendum. It will be on the 16th of April and Turkish people will decide between democracy and dictatorship. And according to the opinion polls it’s 50/50 now.”
“I am just asking the United Nations to adopt a resolution about Turkey and establish a commission of inquiry about the human rights abuses in Turkey.”
“We can bring them down if we come together in solidarity.”

Biram Dah Abeid, leading activist against Mauritanian slavery, former political prisoner

“Our government over the past decade has distinguished itself through its show of imprisonment of peaceful dissidents because of their commitment to legality and against discrimination.”
“We are looking for a Mauritania that doesn’t exist that will be free of this treatment [slavery].”
“My father was freed when he was still but a fetus and he was married, but his wife was a slave and was sold away and this gives you an idea of the trade that goes on with human beings, even with fetuses, with children. . . “
“I am fighting against slavery and the social consequences. I have lived . . . since my young years . . . with slaves. I have been a witness of . . . this forced inferiority. I am working for the self-determination of my black brothers and sisters and I am trying to free their desire for a free life.”

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Issue 621: U.S. Congress Testimony, UNRWA Report, Geneva Summit

unwatch — Fri, 03 Feb 2017 09:53:53 +0000

In this Issue:

UN Watch Director Testifies Before U.S. Congress Hearing on UN’s Anti-Israeli Bigotry
Exposed: 40 UNRWA Teachers’ Antisemitic Facebook Pages—New 130-Page Report by UN Watch
World’s Most Courageous Champions of Human Rights Heading to UN Watch’s Feb. 21 Geneva Summit

_________

UN Watch Director Testifies Before U.S. Congress Hearing on UN & Israel

Click here for video

WASHINGTON – Members of the U.S. House of Representatives’ Foreign Affairs Committee held a special hearing Thursday to discuss the recent UN Security Council resolution against Israel, where UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer, appearing as one of four expert witnesses, presented a new UN Watch report exposing 40 cases of incitement to terrorism and antisemitism by UNRWA school teachers, headmasters and other employees.

Florida Republican Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, head of the subcommittee on the Middle East, opened the discussion by citing recent events involving Israel and the Palestinians including the Security Council resolution. She said “too many continue to see the United Nations for what it is supposed to be—not for what it is.”

Neuer slammed Security Council Resolution 2334 for “absurdly defining Jerusalem’s Temple Mount and Western Wall, the holiest sites in Judaism, together with the Jewish Quarter of the Old City, as ‘Occupied Palestinian Territory’.”

He said the U.S. Congress should “make clear that accusing the Jewish state of illegally occupying its holiest sites and historic capital is as absurd as saying that the Vatican is illegally occupied by the Catholic Church, that Mecca is illegally occupied by Muslims, or that London, Paris and Washington are illegally occupied by the British, French and Americans.”

Neuer described a “U.N. infrastructure of anti-Israel demonization,” citing recent actions by the General Assembly, UNESCO, the Commission on the Status of Women, and the Human Rights Council. Click here for 5-minute video.

Exposed: UNRWA Teachers’ Antisemitic Facebook Pages
Documented in New 130-Page Report by UN Watch

UN Watch released a 130-page report exposing 40 new cases of UNRWA school teachers in Gaza, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria whose Facebook pages incite to Jihadist terrorism and antisemitism, including by posting Holocaust-denying videos and pictures celebrating Hitler.
The report reveals Facebook pages of UNRWA teachers celebrating the terrorist kidnapping of Israeli teenagers, cheering rockets fired at Israeli civilian centers, erasing Israel from the map, and posting overtly antisemitic videos, caricatures, and statements.
UN Watch sent letters yesterday to U.N. chief António Guterres, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, and U.S. envoy to the U.N. Nikki Haley, urging them to take action and demand U.N. condemnation of the incitement—and the immediate termination of the implicated employees.

IMPACT: Germany’s Highest Circulation Newspaper Publishes Major Article on UNRWA Report

After UN Watch sent a letter to German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel urging his country—which gave $90 million a year to UNRWA—to take action to remove teachers of the agency who spread Holocaust denial and antisemitism, the country’s highest circulation newspaper Bild published a major story about UN Watch’s report.

World’s Most Courageous Champions of Human Rights
Heading to UN Watch’s Feb. 21 Geneva Summit

UN Watch and its coalition of 25 non-governmental human rights groups announced today that Taghi Rahmani, the most frequently imprisoned Iranian journalist—and husband of ailing political prisoner Narges Mohammadi—will testify in the U.N. for the opening of the 9th annual Geneva Summit for Human Rights & Democracy, on February 21, 2017.

Taghi Rahmani has spent his life in and out of Iranian prisons for daring to criticize the regime. In 2012, amid intensified crackdowns against dissent, Rahmani fled Iran with his two children to seek refuge in Paris.
Rahmani’s wife, Narges Mohammadi, made the brave decision to stay behind and continue her work leading the struggle for human rights in Iran. Since 2015, she has been held as a prisoner of conscience of the Iranian regime, despite suffering from a critical and worsening illness.

Rahmani will be joined at the Geneva Summit by some of the world’s most courageous champions of human rights.

Speakers at UN Watch’s Feb. 21 Geneva Summit will include:

Danilo Maldonado Machado, Cuban artist, dissident, former political prisoner—just released from prison.
Biram Dah Abeid, Leads fight against slavery in Mauritania—freed from prison this year.
Dang Xuan Dieu, Vietnamese democracy activist—just released after six years in prison.
Can Dündar, Exiled leading Turkish journalist—survived assassination attempt, solitary confinement.
Chito Gascon, Heads Philippines Human Rights Commission—now investigating President Duterte for killings.
[Name Withheld for Security Reasons], High-level North Korean defector.
Antonietta Ledezma, Human rights activist, daughter of Venezuelan political prisoner Caracas Mayor Antonio Ledezma.
Nyima Lhamo, Exiled Tibetan activist, niece of slain religious leader Tenzin Delek Rinpoche.
Mohamed Nasheed, Former President of the Maldives, human rights icon, former political prisoner.
Zhanna Nemtsova, Russian journalist, daughter of assassinated dissident Boris Nemtsov.
Shirin, Freed Yazidi sex slave of the Islamic State, author of I Remain a Daughter of the Light.
Anastasia Zotova, Russian human rights activist, wife of jailed dissident Ildar Dadin.
Keynote Speaker: Irwin Cotler, Former Canadian Minister of Justice & MP, counsel to the oppressed.

The post Issue 621: U.S. Congress Testimony, UNRWA Report, Geneva Summit appeared first on UN Watch.

9th Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy, Feb. 21, 2017

unwatch — Fri, 06 Jan 2017 14:55:41 +0000

Don’t miss the human rights event of the year: www.genevasummit.org

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The United Nations and the Struggle for Human Rights: A report on the 2016 Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy

unwatch — Thu, 25 Feb 2016 00:50:37 +0000

The United Nations and the Struggle for Human Rights: A report on
the 2016 Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy

By David E. Lowe

Rosa Maria Paya, 27, promotes solidarity with her fellow Cubans through pro-democracy activism. She has tirelessly strived to call the world’s attention to the Cuban government’s role in the 2012 death of her father Oswaldo Paya, who founded the Christian Liberation Movement three decades ago to challenge the regime’s one-party rule.
Ensaf Haidar is the wife of liberal Saudi blogger Raif Badawi, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison and 1,000 lashes for setting up an online platform for political and religious debate.
Anastasia Lin, a Chinese-Canadian actress and the current Miss Canada, who portrayed a student killed in a poorly-built school that collapsed during the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, was kept from competing last year in the Miss World contest by the Chinese government.
These three young women were among the featured speakers earlier this week at the 2016 Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy, a gathering of dissidents, human rights victims, activists, diplomats, journalists and student leaders sponsored by a coalition of 25 human rights NGOs. The conference was organized by the watchdog group UN Watch on the eve of the United Nations Human Rights Council’s main annual session.
According to the web site of the office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Council is “an inter-governmental body within the United Nations system responsible for strengthening the promotion and protection of human rights around the globe and for addressing situations of human rights violations and making recommendations on them.“
In an Orwellian twist, the countries whose dismal human rights records were documented at the Geneva Summit by the three women from Cuba, Saudi Arabia, and China actually sit on the 47-member Human Rights Council.
As Nobel Laureate David Trimble pointed out during his keynote address, they do so for the protection it affords them from international scrutiny. Offering reflections on the 10^th anniversary of the Council, Lord Trimble noted the farcical nature of many of the Council’s proceedings, such as the 2009 session in which Kaddafi’s Libya praised Castro’s Cuba for its commitment to free expression, or when four years later China hailed Saudi Arabia’s human rights record. (The latter returned the favor by citing China’s positive treatment of ethnic minorities.)
The conference heard dramatic testimony from witnesses who have experienced abuses far from the spotlight of international attention. Lee Young-guk, one-time bodyguard to North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il, offered the startling contrast between the luxurious lifestyle of the current ruler Kim Jong-un, which includes 14 vacation homes, immense swimming pools, and lavish entertainment, with the subhuman treatment of those he and his father have imprisoned.
Men and women who serve as political prisoners are subjected to frequent beating and starvation along with no less than 14 hours a day of brutal labor in which they are required to meet quotas or be subjected to even harsher conditions. Only by bringing Kim Jong-un before the International Criminal Court will the world learn about his criminal regime.
Another country whose story has gone mostly untold is the east African nation of Eritrea. Dr. Daniel R. Mekonnen is a human rights lawyer, scholar, and former Eritrean judge who was exiled for exposing gross human rights violations committed by his government. Dr. Mekonnen chaired the coordinating committee that organized the largest ever mass rally of pro-democracy Eritreans, which took place last June in Geneva. He expressed his “heartfelt gratitude” to the summit’s organizers for affording him an opportunity to participate in this “global fight to end impunity,” describing the gathering as one of the few forums in the world where the story of his country could be told.
Although the kind of death threats he received from government supporters when he was organizing the demonstration makes his work “challenging,” he asked his audience, “Who ever got their rights for free?” Dr. Mekonnen affirmed his determination to fight for a system based upon the rule of law and expressed confidence that those carrying out this work would ultimately prevail.
Optimism came from another unexpected quarter. The summit heard from Polina Nemirovskaia, a human rights researcher at Open Russia, the movement launched by Mikhail Khodorkovsky in 2014 to strengthen the country’s civil society. Ms. Nemirovskaia, who specializes in protecting the rights of political prisoners, recounted the story of how she became involved in politics against the warnings of her parents.
Despite her cynicism about the system, she became an active supporter of Boris Nemtsov, whom she came to respect as an honest politician. His shocking murder a year ago in the shadow of the Kremlin, which some insiders believed surprised Putin himself, “would have been the perfect moment to make a change.”
Instead, Nemirovskaya said, it marked a different kind of turning point, as the Kremlin now makes no effort to hide what it is doing, putting innocent people in prison, including peaceful protesters.
But she has seen more and more people desperate for change, and she offered a number of concrete cases in which her movement has been successful in challenging the system and getting prisoners released. The Kremlin, she contends, is fighting a losing battle and they know it, “which gives us reason for hope.”
The conference heard from another activist challenging the system, in this instance from the outside. Darya Safai became aware of the plight of women in the Islamic Republic of Iran very early in her life, reprimanded on a school playground at the age of nine for laughing out loud.
She was also prevented from riding a bike or swimming. Why is it, she wondered, that women have to disguise themselves through a mandatory dress code or get the permission from their husbands to travel or to work?
Safai, who was imprisoned by the regime during the 1999 student uprising and now lives in exile, founded the group ‘Let Iranian Women Enter Their Stadiums’ in 2014 to advocate for Iranian women whom the regime now prevents from attending sporting events.
Although she believes the fight for equal rights will ultimately overcome the regime’s extremism, she debunked the notion that it has liberalized during the Presidency of Hassan Rouhani. To the contrary, under his rule, three million files have been opened by the religious police and 40,000 cars have been confiscated because female passengers were not thought to be wearing their hijabs properly.
Her sports campaign was necessitated by the regime’s new restrictions on stadium attendance by Iranian women, for whom its security forces have set up checkpoints for entering vehicles. Iran now shares the company of Saudi Arabia in restricting women in this way.
Another repressive country thought by many to be moderating in the face of U.S. engagement is Cuba, a notion forcefully challenged by democracy activist Rosa Maria Paya. The daughter of the late Oswaldo Paya, whose petition campaign for basic freedoms and multi-party democracy in Cuba made him a target of the Castro regime, Paya contends that he paid for his activism with his life. She called for an international investigation into his death in July 2012 when, according to a key eyewitness, his car was rammed from the rear by a vehicle with official Cuban government plates.
Paya ridiculed the idea that the recent U.S. opening to Cuba has led to the empowerment of civil society. In February 2016, she asserted, the same human rights violators who have stifled freedom of expression and movement, imprisoned their critics, and engaged in extra-judicial killings are still in total control of what she described as a “captive nation.”
Their motive in reaching out to the United States and the European Union is to attract financial investment, which they monopolize. Why should Cuba be any different from China, which continues to repress its people despite substantial foreign investment? Although the regime has tried to force her family into exile, Paya refuses to leave the island and abandon the struggle. Death, she proclaimed, is not more powerful than love.
Noting that it is time for her people to determine their own destiny, Paya asked her international audience to join in giving power to the people and not to the powerful. Quoting her late father, she made a plea “to help us globalize solidarity, or human rights everywhere will be in danger.”
The summit presented two awards. The award for Women’s Rights was given to Vian Dakhil, the only female Yazidi member of Iraqi Parliament, and to Jan Ilhan Kizilhan, the German psychologist who created a clinic in northern Iraq for women victimized by ISIS.
The Courage Award was presented to two key opposition figures in Venezuela imprisoned by the Maduro regime, Caracas mayor Antonio Ledezma and opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez. In presenting the award to members of their family, UN Watch official Celia Michonik noted that because of the deep commitment of their families and supporters around the world, the voices of these courageous men will not be silenced.
UN Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer implored the diplomats in attendance to push for a resolution before the Human Rights Council on Venezuela, something he pointed out that has never been done. Venezuela is yet another serial violator of human rights that sits on the Council.
Throughout the conference, pleas were made on behalf of political prisoners. Former prisoner Jigme Golog, a Tibetan monk imprisoned three separate times and subjected to brutal torture, appealed to the audience not to forget those of his people suffering at the hands of a “terrorist state.”
Acclaimed international human rights lawyer and former Canada Justice Minister Irwin Cotler called attention to cases of political prisoners ranging from the Bahai in Iran to the leader of the anti-slavery movement in Mauritania. He paid tribute to the courage of activists around the world who advocate for those unable to testify in their own behalf.
Referring to the “intense and inspiring” presentations by those who have paid the price for their human rights advocacy, UN Watch’s Hillel Neuer told the audience that if those who heard these eloquent voices left the conference simply to return to business as usual, then “we have failed.”
Paraphrasing Hillel the Elder, the ancient Hebrew sage, Neuer brought the 2016 Geneva Summit to a close by urging each everyone to ask: “If not me, who? If not now, when?”

___________

Key Links of the 2016 Geneva Summit

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Courageous Champions of Human Rights Assemble in Geneva on Sidelines of UN Human Rights Council

unwatch — Wed, 24 Feb 2016 15:21:47 +0000

PRESS RELEASE
Courageous Champions of Human Rights Assemble in Geneva on Sidelines of UN Human Rights Council

FULL PROGRAM OF TOMORROW’S SPEAKERS BELOW

GENEVA, Feb. 24 – Courageous champions of human rights arrived in Geneva today from four corners of the globe in preparation for tomorrow’s Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy, the sixth annual civil society forum held on the sidelines of the UN Human Rights Council.

The event will be live webcast tomorrow, February 25, 2014, between 9:00 am and 6:00 pm CET, days before foreign ministers gather across the street to open the annual session of the UN Human Rights Council. The gathering is designed to draw attention to the world’s most urgent human rights situations.

See below the full conference program.
Live webcast available at www.genevasummit.org.
For interviews or other press inquiries, contact: Arielle Herzog Hadida, Coordinator, secretariat@genevasummit.org.

________________

The 6th Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy
25 February 2014, Centre International de Conférences Genève

PROGRAM

9:00   Welcome
Hillel Neuer, Executive Director of UN Watch, on behalf of the NGO Coalition
9:10    Opening Speech: Political Prisoners and The Legacy of Nelson Mandela
Prof. Irwin Cotler, Canadian MP, former Justice Minister, lawyer for Nelson Mandela
9:30    Women’s Rights, Human Dignity and Equality
Moderator: Daniel Schwammenthal, Journalist
Dalia Ziada, Egyptian human rights activist
Dr. Rakhshinda Perveen, Pakistani women’s rights activist
Annick Cojean, Le Monde journalist, author of book on women raped by Col. Qaddafi
Tenzin Dhardon Sharling, Youngest MP in Tibet’s Parliament-in-Exile
11:00  Russia Today, Iran’s Press TV and The Battle for Objectivity
Moderator: Guy Mettan, President of the Swiss Press Club
James Kirchick,Journalist who hijacked Russia Today interview to expose anti-gay laws
Potkin Azarmehr, Iranian journalist, activist, expert on Iran’s Press TV
12:00  The 2014 Geneva Summit Courage Award
Presented by Ambassador Alfred H. Moses, UN Watch Chair
Chen Guangcheng, Escaped Chinese dissident known as the “Barefoot Lawyer”
Response and conversation with Madeleine Brot, Radio Télévision Suisse
13:00  Networking Lunch
14:30  The Fight for Fundamental Freedoms
Moderator: Philippe Robinet, President of Kéro, publisher of human rights literature
Nagmeh Abedini, Wife of jailed Iranian Pastor Saeed Abedini
William Browder, The man behind the Magnitsky List, CEO of Hermitage Capital
Biram Dah Abeid, Mauritanian anti-slavery activist, 2013 UN Human Rights Laureate
Dang Xuong Hung, Vietnamese diplomat who defected
16:00 Resisting Authoritarianism
Moderator: Alana Goodman, Journalist
Damarys Moya Portieles, Cuban opposition leader, former political prisoner, victim
Ahn Myong Chul, North Korean prison guard who became a human rights activist
Moayad Iskiaf, Syrian journalist and human rights activist
Ali Al Ahmed, Saudi dissident and human rights activist (via Skype)
17:00  Action: How Parliamentarian and Activists Can Effect Change
Moderator: Hillel Neuer, UN Watch
Mu Sochua, Cambodian MP, Council of Asian Liberals, Liberal International
Yang Jianli, Chinese dissident, founder of Initiatives for China
Jacob Mchangama, Director of Legal Affairs at Denmark’s Center for Political Studies
Taha Bawa, Founder of goodwall.org, a new humanitarian social network
18:00  Signing of Outcome Declaration

ORGANIZED BY AN INTERNATIONAL NGO COALITION

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Issue 577: 25 NGOs Led by UN Watch to Grant Women's Rights Award to Iraqi MP & German Psychologist for Rescuing Yazidi Women Enslaved by ISIS

unwatch — Fri, 19 Feb 2016 08:04:20 +0000

Award Ceremony at UN Watch’s 8th Annual Geneva Summit, Opening Next Week at United Nations

Days before world leaders gather at UNHRC in Geneva, a global summit of dissidents
led by UN Watch on Feb. 23 will spotlight human rights situations in China, Cuba, Iraq,
North Korea, Eritrea, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, Venezuela & more

Vian Dakhil, a Yazidi member of the Iraqi parliament, famously made an emotional speech that stirred President Obama to rescue Yazidis in 2014.

Dr. Jan Ilhan Kizilhan is a German psychologist who has treated over 1,100 female Yazidi and other victims of ISIS sexual enslavement.

GENEVA, February 19, 2016 — One of the world’s most prestigious international women’s rights awards will go this year to Vian Dakhil, a Yazidi member of the Iraqi parliament, and to German psychologist Jan Ilhan Kizilhan, for their “extraordinary and inspiring” work to rescue Yazidi and other women enslaved, assaulted, and sexually abused by ISIS in Syria and Iraq, a global coalition of 25 human rights organizations led by UN Watch announced today.
Both laureates will personally receive the 2016 Geneva Summit’s International Women’s Rights Award at a major ceremony to take place this Tuesday, February 23, 2016, where they will address UN diplomats, several hundred human rights activists, and journalists from around the world attending the 8th annual Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy.
Vian Dakhil Broke Into Tears
Ms. Dakhil broke into tears during a parliament session in August 2014 while describing the plight of her fellow Yazidis during the onslaught by ISIS in northern Iraq.
Ms. Dakhil’s impassioned plea made the world sit up and take notice, and was instrumental in President Obama’s decision to order airdrops of urgent supplies and airstrikes against ISIS.
Due to her tireless work to provide solace for and rebuild the shattered lives of traumatized ISIS escapees, she is today at the top of ISIS’s hit list.
Comment by Vian Dakhil
“I am honored to have been selected for this prestigious award on behalf of all women victims of ISIS,” said Dakhil. “The Yazidi community has been victimized by ISIS, especially the women and girls. The world needs to do more to release the girls in ISIS captivity and protect the human rights of all the people under ISIS control.”

Dr. Kizilhan: ISIS Has “Nazi-like, Genocidal” Attitude

Dr. Jan Ilhan Kizilhan is a German psychologist who operates a unique clinic in Iraq’s Kurdish region where he has treated over 1,100 female Yazidi and other victims of ISIS abuse, with the most severe cases sent to Baden-Württemberg, in southwest Germany, for a period of intensive treatment.
The $100 million “preventative asylum” project is funded by the Baden-Württemberg state government. For Dr. Kizilhan, himself a Turkish-born Yazidi who immigrated to Germany at age 6, it’s personal. Islamic State doesn’t see Yazidis like him as human.
“As a scientist you learn that ideology can blind people,” he told the Wall Street Journal‘s Sohrab Ahmari, who will also be participating at Tuesday’s Geneva Summit. “In the morning they rape children, and at night when they go home they’re loving fathers and husbands.” To treat ISIS as just another al Qaeda-style terror group, Kizilhan warned in his WSJ interview, is to ignore the “Nazi-like,” genocidal evolution of its Islamist worldview.
“On each of his visits to Iraqi Kurdistan, Mr. Kizilhan interviews dozens of women to identify those most in need of evacuation. Most are Yazidis and Christians, with smaller numbers of Shiite Muslims. He is now close to the program’s head-count limit, forcing him to make wrenching decisions as the women take him on a tour of the depths of Islamic State depravity,” reported the WSJ.
Comment by Dr. Kizilhan
“I am honored to have been selected for this prestigious award on behalf of all women victims of ISIS,” said Professor Kizilhan. “The state government of Baden-Württemberg in Germany has brought 1,100 women and girls to Germany for treatment after they were released from ISIS captivity. Yet, hundreds more are still held captive and we need to keep on fighting for their release.”
25 NGOs to Present 2016 International Women’s Rights Award at Geneva Summit
Dakhil and Kizilhan were chosen “for their extraordinary work to protect the most basic human rights of Yazidi women” said Hillel Neuer, the executive director of UN Watch, a co-organizer of the conference together with Liberal International, Human Rights Foundation, and more than 20 other human rights groups.
Last year’s prize went to Masih Alinejad, Iranian women’s rights campaigner and creator of the My Stealthy Freedom project
Geneva Summit Seeks to Influence Foreign Ministers Days Before
They Gather for 10th Anniversary of UN Human Rights Council
The two-day Geneva Summit will feature presentations by top-name activists, former political prisoners and victims from North Korea, China, Russia, Iran and many other human rights hotspots, with the aim of placing key issues on the global agenda days before UN chief Ban Ki-moon and numerous foreign ministers gather across the street to open the 10th anniversary session of the UN Human Rights Council.

Assembly of World Champions of Human Rights
Next week’s Geneva Summit provides a one-stop opportunity to hear from frontline human rights advocates, many of whom have personally suffered imprisonment and torture.
The speakers’ compelling and vivid testimonies will press UNHRC delegates not to allow politics to override the cries of human rights victims.
Speakers will include:
· Svitlana Zalishchuk, Ukrainian MP and key figure in 2013 EuroMaidan movement
· Yang Jianli, Former Chinese political prisoner, survivor of Tiananmen Square massacre
· Vian Dakhil, Iraq’s only female Yazidi MP and champion of ISIS victims
· Jan Ilhan Kizilhan, German psychologist who treats female ISIS victims
· Ensaf Haidar, Wife of jailed Saudi blogger Raif Badawi, recipient of 2015 Geneva Summit Courage Award
· Anastasia Lin, Miss World Canada 2015, advocate for human rights in China
· Jigme Golog, Tibetan monk and filmmaker recently released from jail
· Darya Safai, Campaigner for Iranian women’s rights
· Orhan Kemal Cengiz, Turkish human rights lawyer & columnist
· Daniel Mekonnen, Exiled Eritrean human rights lawyer and scholar
· Lee Young-guk, Bodyguard to former North Korean Dictator Kim Jong-Il who fled to South Korea
· Rosa Maria Paya, Cuban human rights activist and daughter of late dissident Oswaldo Paya
· Polina Nemirovskaia, Russian human rights activist
· Joan Hoey, Editor of The Economist Intelligence Unit’s Democracy Index
· Lord David Trimble, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and former First Minister of Northern Ireland
· Christopher Walker, VP, National Endowment for Democracy
· Irwin Cotler, Former Canadian Minister of Justice and lawyer for political prisoners
Now in its eighth year, the annual conferences of the Geneva Summit have enjoyed widespread coverage by CNN, Le Monde, and other major media.
Admission to this year’s February 23, 2016 summit is free to the public and media, but registration is mandatory. For registration, program and schedule information, visit www.genevasummit.org.
All sessions will be live webcast next Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2016, starting at 9:15 am Geneva time, at www.genevasummit.org

The post Issue 577: 25 NGOs Led by UN Watch to Grant Women's Rights Award to Iraqi MP & German Psychologist for Rescuing Yazidi Women Enslaved by ISIS appeared first on UN Watch.