Hillel Neuer, executive director of United Nations Watch, on behalf of 30 co-sponsoring NGOs, delivered the welcome address at the 17th Annual Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy on February 18th, 2025.
Full Remarks:
Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen: Welcome to the 17th annual Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy. My name is Hillel Neuer, and I am the Executive Director of United Nations Watch, one of 25 human rights groups co-sponsoring this important assembly.
Next week, the United Nations, just across the street, will open its main annual session of the Human Rights Council. We hold this Geneva Summit one week in advance of that UN session, in order to turn a spotlight on urgent situations that require the attention of the Council, and of the world.
That is why courageous human rights voices have gathered here today from the four corners of the earth. To bear witness before the world of the tyranny and oppression they confront. To sound the alarm. To call for action.
You know, when most people hear the words, “UN Human Rights Council,” they imagine, in their minds, men wearing long white beards, dressed in white robes, strolling along Mount Olympus, basing their decision based on facts, logic and morality, when nothing could be further from the truth.
Sitting around the table, at the UNHRC across the street, are not Aristotle, Socrates and Plato, but rather many of the world’s worst violators of human rights. They use their membership as a false badge of international legitimacy, to gain impunity for their records of abuse.
Aristotle, Socrates, Plato? No. Their members include repressive regimes like China, Cuba, Qatar, Sudan, Vietnam, and others.
That’s right: China’s Communist regime is a member. China is oppressing 1.5 billion people, a fifth of humanity, yet it has never once been criticized by any council resolution, inquiry, or special session. On the contrary, they’ll be sitting next week, across the street, as a judge.
So we decided, that across the street from the Council, the world needs to know the truth about China.
So we invited Time Wang. His father Wang Biingzhang is the father of the Chinese pro-democracy movement. They kidnapped him in June 2002, and he’s been languishing in prison for over two decades.
The world needs to know what they’re doing to the Uyghurs. Rounding them up in camps. Attempting to eradicate their entire culture. So we invited Rahima Mahmut, a Uyghur human rights activist, translator, and singer.
The world needs to know what China is doing to the people of Tibet. Also trying to destroy their culture. So we have with us Nam-kee. For protesting China’s oppression at the age of 15 they threw her in prison. She was there for three years. She managed to escape. She walked non-stop for 10 days and escaped to India. Amazing to have you with us, Nam-kee.
And the world needs to know what they’re doing to Hong Kong. Once a great island of freedom in Asia, its democracy has been strangled by Beijing. So we invited Sebastien Lai to tell us about his father Jimmy Lai, publisher of a major pro-democracy newspaper. A very successful man, Jimmy Lai could have escaped abroad, but he said no. He chose not to abandon ship, to stay with his people. They threw him in prison. He’s 77 years old.
Now another country sitting as a judge next week on the UNHRC is the police state of Cuba. The world needs to know what the Havana dictatorship is doing to its people. So we invited Osiris Puerto Terry. He took part in the historic pro-democracy protests in July 2021. They shot him multiple times. He’s very brave to fly here to testify and then to be going back to Cuba. Gracias.
Sudan sits on the Council. Sudan the world needs to know the truth about the war that has just killed 150,000 people. 11 million people forced from their homes. So we invited Niemat Ahmadi, a leading women’s rights defender from Sudan, a survivor of the Sudan Genocide.
Vietnam sits on the UNHRC. A one-party Communist regime, the world needs to know about they silence all dissent including on social media. So we invited Van Trang Nguyen, who has been targeted by the regime for his pro-democracy activism.
You know, hard to imagine but Qatar, a country that sponsors terrorists and misogynistic regimes, is sitting at the Human Rights Council, here in Geneva. They throw money around, millions of dollars to all the international agencies, and the directors love to meet with them. Yet Qatar supports terrorists and misogynistic regimes, like the Taliban in Afghanistan.
At the United Nations, shockingly some want to normalize and recognize the Taliban. Listen to the words of UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Muhammad from a little over a year ago : “I hope there is a day that we do recognize this government.”
So we have invited Dr. Massouda Jalal, the pediatrician who served as Afghan Minister of Women’s Affairs, and her daughter, Husna Jalal, both of them now exiled, who will tell the world about how women are treated under the Taliban. For their courageous leadership, today soon they will receive our Women’s Rights Award.
Now Eritrea just completed six years on the Council. In New York, they sit on the UN committee that oversees Human Rights NGOs. The world needs to know about the dictator, the country’s first and only president since 1993; he’s president for life. So we invited Betlehem Isaak, to tell us about her father Dawit Isaak, the world’s longest detained journalist, taken away in 2001, 24 years ago, for supporting democratic reform.
Now friends, a little over a year ago, the Chair of the UN Human Rights Council Social Forum, right across the street, was the Islamic Republic of Iran. The world needs to know who this regime is.
The world needs to know who this regime is so we are greatly honored to have Iranian Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, the renowned opposition leader, who will deliver the Keynote Address.
And with the help of our long-time partner Nazanin Afshin-Jam, we are holding a panel of survivors. We’ll hear from Mahan Mehrabi. Her brother Mahmoud was arrested for taking part in the Woman Life Freedom protests. In May, he was sentenced to death – for the crime of criticizing the government on social media.
Abolfazl Amir-Ataei was killed at age 16 for protesting. His mother, Maryam Diyor, is here to tell the story.
And we’ll hear from Saman Pouryaghma. We’ll hear from Saman, also for protesting, they shot him in the eye.
You should know: for daring to come here, these courageous survivors, these witnesses have been threatened and attacked. Thank you nevertheless for coming here.
Friends, the dissidents featured here today are exceptional men and women. At great risk to themselves and to their families, they’ve chosen to take on the worst abusers, to dedicate their lives for the principles of freedom, democracy, and human rights – the principles that we here in the West all hold dear. They’re fighting around the globe for our principles. We need to stand with them.
One of these individuals is Vladimir Kara-Murza, a Russian opposition leader, author, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, historian, and documentary filmmaker. Because he spoke out against Putin, they tried to kill him by poisoning in 2015, and again in 2017. He barely survived. He went back to Russia. He spoke out against the regime. In April 2022, after he called Putin a war criminal, they took him away. They sentenced to 25 years in prison for treason. He was languishing in a Siberian gulag, in solitary confinement, his health deteriorating. His wife Evgenia went around the world, tirelessly fighting for his release. We hosted her several times here at the Summit, across the street at the United Nations. By a miracle, in August Valdimir was released, and we’re going to see them both reunited soon on stage.
In Venezuela, the dictator Nicholas Maduro destroyed the country, causing more than 7 billion people to flee. He has been on the Human Rights Council many, many years. With the support, however, of opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, Edmundo González decided to run for President. The world knows that he won. Maduro lied and made up fake results. The world knows that Mr. Gonzalez won. The regime has now kidnapped his son-in-law. He lives in exile but he continues to speak out. We’re so honored he’ll be here this afternoon to receive this year’s Courage Award.
Now friends, to help us make sense of all this, to give us the global perspective, there could be no better person to deliver momentarily our Opening Address than Garry Kasparov. Widely considered history’s greatest chess player, the world chess champion, for the past two decades he has devoted his life to defending human rights and democracy, writing books and op-eds. As Vice President of the World Liberty Congress, Garry plays a vital role in the struggle for which we are gathered today.
Ladies and gentlemen, the moral force in this room right now is astonishing. This is a gathering of those who stand as living proof that even the most brutal regimes cannot crush the human spirit.
Tyranny thrives on silence. But today, in this room, there is no silence—only truth, courage, and defiance. Let this gathering be a message to the world’s oppressors: We see you. We will not look away. And we will not stop until justice prevails. Thank you very much.
17th Annual Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy, U.N. Opening, Monday, February 17, 2025
