Speakers

Syria

Abdalaziz Alhamza

Award-winning Syrian journalist, co-founder of Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently

FGM

Nimco Ali

Award-winning women’s rights activist and campaigner against FGM

Venezuela

Diego Arria

Former Venezuelan Ambassador to the UN and President of the Security Council

Turkey

Nurcan Baysal

Award-winning Kurdish journalist and activist, recently detained by Turkey

Political Prisoners

Irwin Cotler

International Chair of Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights, former Minister of Justice & Attorney General of Canada

Vietnam

Nguyen Van Dai

Vietnamese human rights lawyer released from prison in 2018

Saudi Arabia

Ensaf Haidar

Human rights activist and wife of Saudi political prisoner Raif Badawi

Human Rights

Hakima El Haité

President of Liberal International, Former Minister of Environment for Morocco

The Philippines

Vicente de Lima II

Brother of Philippine Senator Leila de Lima, jailed for criticizing Duterte’s Drug War

China

Yang Jianli

Chinese dissident, former political prisoner, Tiananmen Square massacre survivor and President of Initiatives for China

Human Rights

James Kirchick

Journalist, author, and visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution

Human Rights

Michael Levitt

Canadian MP, Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Former Chair of the Human Rights Subcommittee

Saudi Arabia

Elham Manea

Professor of Middle East affairs and family spokesperson for Raif Badawi

Nicaragua

Félix Maradiaga

Nicaraguan opposition leader and former political prisoner, targeted by the government on false criminal charges

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

Burundi

Ketty Nivyabandi

Poet and exiled Burundian democracy activist, led a movement of women-only protests

Iran

Richard Ratcliffe

Husband of arbitrarily detained British-Iranian Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, leads #FreeNazanin campaign

Moderator

Centa Rek

Senior Legal and Policy Associate at the Human Rights Foundation

Presenter

Brandon Silver

Director of Policy & Projects at the Raoul Wallenberg Centre

Tibet

Dhondup Wangchen

Tibetan filmmaker and activist who spent six years in a Chinese prison