Speakers

Iran

Genoveva Tisheva

Vice Chair, U.N Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women

Iran

Ali Ehsassi

Member of Canadian Parliament, Chair of Foreign Affairs Committee

Iran

Alireza Akhondi

Swedish MP campaigning for the EU to list the IRGC as a terrorist entity

Iran

Shima Babaei

Activist imprisoned for removing hijab, daughter of forcibly disappeared dissident Ebrahim Babaei

Moderator

Javier El-Hage

Chief Legal & Policy Officer at the Human Rights Foundation (HRF)

Iran

Hadrien Ghomi

French MP central to France’s response to the Iran Protests

North Korea

Songmi Han

North Korean escapee and survivor of extreme poverty, oppression, and abandonment.

Hong Kong

Frances Hui

First Hong Kong activist to win political asylum in the US, director of We the Hong Kongers

Afghanistan

Nila Ibrahimi

15-year-old Hazara activist who narrowly escaped the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan

Venezuela

Hasler Iglesias

Venezuelan youth leader, went into hiding to escape arrest by the Maduro regime

Uyghur

Dolkun Isa

President of the World Uyghur Congress, former pro-democracy student leader targeted in China

Afghanistan

Soomaya Javadi

Young Hazara activist who fled Afghanistan following the overthrow of Kabul

China

Yang Jianli

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

Cuba

Abraham Jiménez Enoa

Prominent Cuban journalist forced into exile, grandson of the bodyguard to Fidel Castro and Che Guevara

Ukraine

Andrey Kurkov

Ukraine’s most famous novelist, author of “Diary of an Invasion” on Russia’s war

Tibet

Dr. Gyal Lo

Tibetan activist, educational sociologist, and a leading expert on China’s assimilation and education policies in Tibet

Zimbabwe

Fadzayi Mahere

Constitutional lawyer, opposition spokesperson arrested repeatedly in Zimbabwe

Nicaragua

Félix Maradiaga

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

Turkey

Nevşin Mengü

Turkish journalist dropped from CNN Türk after she criticized President Erdogăn

Russia

Anastasia Shevchenko

First dissident convicted under Russia’s “undesirable organization” law, subject of Oscar-shortlisted film “Anastasia”

Uyghur

Kalbinur Sidik

Activist, victim of forced sterilization, witness of Chinese reeducation camp atrocities