Speaker Bios – The Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy

Speakers

Kazakhstan

Lukpan Akhmedyarov

Kazakh dissident journalist

Democratic Republic of Congo

Colette Braeckman

Expert on Sexual Violence in the DRC

North Korea

Kang Chol-hwan

North Korean Defector

Morocco

Kacem El Ghazzali

Moroccan human rights activist

Sudan

Mukesh Kapila

Aegis Trust expert on Sudan genocide

Syria

Randa Kassis

Syrian politician, journalist and President of the Movement for a Pluralistic Society

Human Rights

James Kirchick

Journalist, author, and visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution

Pakistan

Mukhtar Mai

Pakistani rape victim, author and human rights activist

Mauritania

Abidine Merzough

Anti-slavery activist, European Coordinator of the Initiative for the Resurgence of the Abolitionist Movement in Mauritania

Moderator

Guy Mettan

Journalist and Executive Director of the Club Suisse de la Presse

Human Rights

Alfred Moses

Chair of UN Watch, former U.S. Ambassador to Romania, Special Presidential Envoy for the Cyprus Conflict, Special Counsel to President Jimmy Carter

Iran

Marina Nemat

Iranian author imprisoned for criticizing the Iranian regime at the age of 16

Cuba

Regis Iglesias Ramirez

Cuban dissident and human rights activist, imprisoned by the Cuban government

Moderator

Philippe Robinet

Director General, Calmann-Lévy books

North Korea

Dong-hyuk Shin

Survivor of North Korean Concentration Camp

Russia

Pyotr Verzilov

Russian performance artist, husband of imprisoned Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, member of the Pussy Riot feminist rock band