Speakers

Nicaragua

Lesther Alemán

Exiled Nicaraguan student leader, former political prisoner

Uyghur

Abduweli Ayup

Uyghur activist who endured detention by Chinese authorities for advocating Uyghur rights

FGM

Fatou Baldeh

Gambian women’s rights activist and survivor fighting to end Female Genital Mutilation

Russia

Aleksandra Garmazhapova

Russian anti-war activist and investigative journalist, founder of the Free Buryatia Foundation

Tibet

Chemi Lhamo

Tibetan-Canadian human rights activist and community organizer

North Korea

Hyosim Maeng

North Korean defector, human rights activist, and advocate for disability rights

Venezuela

Victor Navarro

Exiled Venezuelan human rights activist and former political prisoner

Bolivia

Toribia Lero Quispe

Bolivian indigenous leader from the Sura Nation, member of the Bolivian Legislative Assembly

Iran

Gazelle Sharmahd

Daughter of Jamshid Sharmahd, fighting against her father’s unjust imprisonment and death sentence in Iran

Zimbabwe

Job Sikhala

Zimbabwean opposition leader held for 595 days in pre-trial detention

Cambodia

Mu Sochua

Former opposition member of the Cambodian Parliament

Belarus

Veronica Tsepkalo

Exiled Belarusian opposition figure and chair of the Belarus Women’s Foundation

China

Rei Xia

Chinese dissenter, human rights activist, and former political prisoner

Ukraine

Lisa Yasko

Member of Ukrainian Parliament and founder of the NGO Yellow Blue Strategy

Iran

Kylie Moore-Gilbert

Australian-British academic freed after two years in Iranian prison as a victim of hostage diplomacy