As China Considers Arming Russia in Ukraine, Dissidents Unite In Geneva

GENEVA, March 14, 2022 — A coalition of 25 human rights groups announced today that leading dissidents from Hong Kong, Tibet and China will come together to express their support for democracy at the 14th Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy. The announcement comes as US officials reveal Russia has requested military assistance from China in its war with democratic Ukraine.

Joey Siu, a Hong Kong protest leader and advisor at Hong Kong Watch who was arrested for protesting the 2022 Beijing Olympics; and Sophie Luo, wife to wrongly imprisoned Chinese rights lawyer Ding Jiaxi, now awaiting sentencing after three years behind bars; will speak out for democracy at home and abroad at the April 6 event.

They will be joined by Tibetan Tenzin Tsundue, who has been arrested 16 times for his activism; and Rushan Abbas, a Nobel Prize nominated Uyghur activist whose sister disappeared in 2018.

The dissidents will address an audience of diplomats, journalists and policymakers alongside 15 other champions of human rights from around the world, who will tell compelling personal stories of arrest and imprisonment by the globe’s most brutal regimes.

Co-sponsored by 25 human rights groups including the World Uyghur Congress and United Nations Watch, the Geneva Summit will take place at the CICG in Geneva, Switzerland, on April 6th.

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.

The Geneva Summit’s 2022 line-up includes:

Sophie Luo, Wife of imprisoned and tortured Chinese human rights lawyer Ding Jiaxi, a prominent member of the New Citizens Movement, a group of activists calling for greater government transparency and an end to state corruption.

Joey Siu, Hongkongese-American activist, policy advisor at Hong Kong Watch, and advisor to the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC), arrested in October 2021 for protesting the Beijing Olympics.

Rushan Abbas, Founder of the Campaign for Uyghurs and sister to detained Uyghur doctor Gulshan Abbas.

Tenzin Tsundue, Tibetan writer and activist who recently completed a 127-day 20,000km protest Himalayan protest hike to draw attention to China’s aggressive expansionist policies along  the Sino-India border.

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

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