25 Rights NGOs Respond to Ukraine Invasion By Hosting Russian Opposition Leader

GENEVA, February 24, 2022 —  A coalition of 25 non-governmental human rights groups announced today that Russian opposition leader and chief of staff to the imprisoned Alexei Navalny Leonid Volkov will speak at the 14th annual Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy.

Volkov will expose Russia’s human rights abuses at home and abroad at the April 6 event, where he will address an audience of UN diplomats, human rights activists and journalists from around the world.

Volkov was invited to “ensure Vladimir Putin is unable to hide his domestic crackdown under the fog of war,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of United Nations Watch, a co-organizer of the conference together with Liberal International and Human Rights Foundation, among others.

Also announced as speakers this week:

  • Tatsiana Khomich, Sister to imprisoned Belarussian opposition leader Maria Kalesnikava and opposition Representative for Political Prisoners.
  • Mariam Claren, Daughter to German-Iranian dual national and women’s rights activist Nahid Taghavi, who has been held hostage in Iran since October 2020.

The Geneva Summit takes place at the CICG in Geneva, Switzerland, on April 6, 2022, when courageous dissidents and champions of human rights from around the world will gather to tell their compelling personal stories of arrest and imprisonment by the world’s worst regimes.

Click here to register for the event. Participation is free, but registration is mandatory.

For media inquiries, please contact Pat Rose at media@genevasummit.org.

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