Speakers

Sudan

Niemat Ahmadi

Sudanese women’s rights defender and survivor of the Darfur Genocide

Saudi Arabia

Tirad Badawi

Son of Raif Badawi, banned from leaving Saudi Arabia for promoting liberalism

Iran

Maryam Diyor

Mother of Abolfazl Amir-Ataei who was murdered at the age of 16 by the Islamic regime while participating in the 2022 Woman, Life, Freedom protests

Afghanistan

Massouda Jalal

Former Afghan Minister of Women’s Affairs and the first woman to run for President of Afghanistan

Afghanistan

Husna Jalal

Exiled Afghan women’s rights activist and the daughter of Massouda Jalal

Russia

Garry Kasparov

Human rights activist, promoter of democracy, and former World Chess Champion

Hong Kong

Sebastien Lai

Democracy activist and son of imprisoned pro-democracy media entrepreneur Jimmy Lai

Uyghur persecution

Rahima Mahmut

Uyghur human rights activist, translator, and singer

Iran

Mahan Mehrabi

Sister of Iranian political prisoners Mahmoud and Maryam Mehrabi

Tibet

Namkyi

Exiled Tibetan activist and former political prisoner

Vietnam

Van Trang Nguyen

Vietnamese democracy activist and victim of transnational repression

China

Times Wang

Human rights lawyer and the son of Chinese political prisoner Wang Bingzhang

Iran

Nazanin Afshin-Jam

Iranian-born Canadian human rights advocate and co-founder of Stop Child Executions

Political Prisoners

Irwin Cotler

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