Kacem El Ghazzali

Kacem El Ghazzali is a Moroccan human rights activist and intellectual. He was the author of ‘Bahmut’, one of the most controversial blogs in the Arab world, in which he proclaimed his atheism – only to receive a number of death threats.

In 2011 El Ghazzali fled Morocco for Switzerland, where he was naturalised in 2017. He has since addressed the Human Rights Council on various issues, including women’s rights in Iran and freedom of thought in Saudi Arabia. In 2015 he became a co-director of the Raif Badawi Foundation for Freedom.

In 2018 El Ghazzali was named Swiss of the Year by Basler Zeitung.

Speeches

Morocco

The Silencing of Critical Voices in Morocco with Kacem El Ghazzali

Kacem El Ghazzali, Moroccan human rights activist and intellectual, author of ‘Bahmut’, one of the most controversial blogs in the Arab world, adresses the 5th Annual Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy – see below for full prepared remarks.   Full remarks   GS13 – The Silencing of Critical Voices in

Panel

From Moscow to the Middle East: The Silencing of Critical Voices with Kacem El Ghazzali, Lukpan Akhmedyarov, Guy Mettan, Pyotr Verzilov

A panel including one of Kazakhstan’s most prominent independent journalists and former editor-in-chief and reporter at Uralskaya Nedelya, Lukpan Akhmedyarov;  Moroccan human rights activist and intellectual, Kacem El Ghazzali; journalist and former Executive Director of the “Club Suisse de la Presse,” Guy Mettan; and Russian performance artist, political activist, and