The Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy is an annual human rights summit sponsored by a coalition of 20 non-governmental organizations. [1] Each year, on the eve of the United Nations Human Rights Council's main annual session, activists from around the world meet to raise international awareness of human rights situations. [2] [3] [4]
The first summit took place on Sunday, April 19, 2009, prior to the United Nations Durban Review Conference. [5] Speakers included, among others, Iranian activist Nazanin Afshin Jam; [6] Egyptian dissident Saad Eddin Ibrahim; [6] American human rights activist Ellen Bork; [6] Gibreil Hamid of Darfur, Sudan; [6] Soe Aung of Burma; [6] Marlon Zakeyo of Zimbabwe; [6] Cuban opposition activist and former political prisoner José Gabriel Ramón Castillo; [6] and Venezuelan activist Gonzalo Himiob Santome. [6]
The 2010 summit took place on Monday, March 8, 2010. [7] Speakers included, among others, Massouda Jalal, former Afghan Minister of Women's Affairs; [8] exiled Uyghur leader Rebiya Kadeer; [8] Bob Boorstin, Google's policy director; [9] Caspian Makan, fiancé of slain Iranian icon Neda Agha Soltan; [9] Cuban dissident José Gabriel Ramón Castillo; [9] and Bo Kyi of Burma, a former political prisoner and secretary of the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners. [9]
The 2011 summit took place on Tuesday, March 15, 2011. [10] Speakers included, among others, Ugandan LGBT rights activist Jacqueline Kasha; [9] Cuban dissident Luis Enrique Ferrer Garcia; [9] Guang-il Jung, a North Korean labor camp escapee; [9] Turkmenistani activist Farid Tukhbatullin; [9] North Korean activist Cheong Kwang Il; [11] and Libyan dissident Mohamed Eljahmi. [12]
The 2012 summit took place on Tuesday, March 13, 2012. [13] Speakers included, among others, Chinese dissidents Yang Jianli and Ren Wanding; [14] Cuban activist Néstor Rodríguez Lobaina; [14] Zimbabwean activist Jestina Mukoko; [14] Burmese activist Zoya Phan; [14] former Egyptian political prisoner Maikel Nabil; [14] North Korean defectors Joo-il Kim and Song Ju Kim; [14] Iranian activist Ebrahim Mehtari; [14] and Syrian activist Hadeel Kouki. [14]
The 2013 summit took place on Tuesday, February 19, 2013. [15] Speakers included, among others, Pakistani women's rights activist Mukhtar Mai; [16] Moroccan writer and atheist Kacem El Ghazzali; [17] Tibetan politician Dicki Chhoyang; [18] Syrian politician Randa Kassis; [18] former Cuban political prisoner Régis Iglesias; [18] Iranian dissident Marina Nemat; [19] Pyotr Verzilov, husband of jailed Pussy Riot member Nadezhda Tolokonnikova; [19] and Kazakh journalist Lukpan Akhmedyarov. [19]
The 2014 summit took place on Tuesday, February 25, 2014. [20] Speakers included, among others, Mauritanian anti-slavery activist Biram Dah Abeid; [21] Tibetan MP Tenzin Dhardon Sharling; [22] Chinese political dissident Yang Jianli; [22] Canadian MP and human rights lawyer Irwin Cotler; [23] North Korean human rights activist Ahn Myong Chul; [24] Naghmeh Abedini, wife of imprisoned Iranian-American pastor Saeed Abedini;[ citation needed] and the aunt of imprisoned Venezuelan opposition leader Leopoldo López. [24]
The summit's Courage Award was given to Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng, who was the keynote speaker. [24]
The 2015 summit took place on Tuesday, February 24, 2015. [25] Speakers included, among others, Yeonmi Park, a North Korean defector and human rights activist; [26] Lim Il, a North Korean defector and former slave laborer; [26] a Nigerian teenager, identified simply as "Saa", who escaped after being abducted by Boko Haram; [27] [28] Hong Kong protest leaders Alex Chow and Lester Shum; [29] Pierre Torres, a French journalist who was held hostage by ISIS for ten months; [30] Turkish journalist Yavuz Baydar; [31] Moroccan politician Fouzia Elbayed; [32] and Tibetan politician Dicki Chhoyang. [33]
The summit's Courage Award was given to Raif Badawi, an imprisoned Saudi Arabian writer and activist, [34] and accepted on his behalf by Elham Manea, Professor at the University of Zurich. [35] The Women's Rights Award was given to Masih Alinejad, an Iranian journalist and the founder of My Stealthy Freedom. [1]
The 2016 summit took place on Tuesday, February 23, 2016. Speakers included, among others, Ensaf Haidar, wife of jailed Saudi Arabian blogger Raif Badawi; Anastasia Lin, Miss World Canada 2015 and an advocate for human rights in China; Vian Dakhil, Iraqi politician and ISIS victim's advocate; Svitlana Zalishchuk, a Ukrainian politician and key figure in the Euromaidan movement of 2013; Darya Safai, a Belgian-Iranian women's rights advocate; Orhan Kemal Cengiz, a Turkish human rights advocate; Lee Young-guk, a former bodyguard of Kim Jong-il who defected to South Korea; Polina Nemirovskaia, Russian human rights activist; David Trimble, former First Minister of Northern Ireland; and Chinese dissident Yang Jianli. [36]
The summit's Courage Award was given to jailed Venezuelan opposition leaders Antonio Ledezma and Leopoldo López. Relatives of the two men accepted the award on their behalf. [36] The 2016 Women's Rights award went to Vian Dakhil, the only female Yazidi member of Iraqi Parliament, and Jan Ilhan Kizilhan, a German-born psychologist who founded a clinic in Iraq for women victims of the Islamic State. [37]
The 2017 summit took place on Tuesday, February 21, 2017. Speakers included Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch; Irwin Cotler, chair of the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights; Jakub Klepal, executive director of Forum 2000; Can Dündar, exiled Turkish journalist; Zhanna Nemtsova, Russian journalist and activist; Anastasia Zotova, Russian activist and wife of Ildar Dadin; Antonietta Ledezma, daughter of imprisoned Venezuelan politician Antonio Ledezma; Chito Gascon, Filipino activist; Taghi Rahmani, Iranian journalist and husband of Narges Mohammadi; Alfred H. Moses, chair of UN Watch; El Sexto, Cuban graffiti artist and activist; Nyima Lhamo, exiled Tibetan activist and niece of Tenzin Delek Rinpoche; Biram Dah Abeid, Mauritanian anti-slavery activist; Astrid Thors, Finnish politician; Mohamed Nasheed, Maldivian activist; Medard Mulangala, DRC opposition leader; James Jones, documentary filmmaker; Kim Kwang-jin, North Korean defector; and Đặng Xuân Diệu, Vietnamese human rights activist. [38]
The 2017 Women's Rights Award was given to "Shirin", a Yazidi woman who escaped sexual slavery in the Islamic State, and author of I Remain a Daughter of the Light (Ich bleibe eine Tocher des Lichts), recently published in Germany. [38] [39] The 2017 Courage Award was given to Mohamed Nasheed, former president of the Maldives and the country's leading human rights activist. [40]
The 2018 summit took place on Tuesday, February 20, 2018. Speakers included Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch; Luis Almagro, Uruguayan politician and Secretary General of the Organization of American States; Bolivian attorney and Human Rights Foundation associate Javier El-Hage; Turkish novelist Aslı Erdoğan; Cuban psychologist, journalist, and activist Guillermo Fariñas; Zimbabwean pastor and dissident Evan Mawarire; Effy Nguyen, son of Vietnamese activist and political prisoner Nguyen Trung Ton; Pakistani journalist Taha Siddiqui; Chinese dissident Yang Jianli; Hong Kong bookshop owner Lam Wing-kee; Tibetan monk and activist Golog Jigme; British journalist Jonny Gould; Farida Abbas Khalaf, Yazidi author of The Girl Who Beat ISIS; Ruth Dreifuss, first female president of Switzerland; Congolese human rights activist Julienne Lusenge; María-Alejandra Aristeguieta Álvarez, coordinator of Iniciativa Por Venezuela; Canadian former MP Irwin Cotler; Venezuelan politician and former political prisoner Antonio Ledezma; Luis Almagro, Secretary General of the Organization of American States; Ugandan LGBT rights activist Kasha Jacqueline; Iranian-Canadian activist Maryam Nayeb Yazdi; Iranian journalist and filmmaker Maziar Bahari; Maryam Malekpour, sister of Iranian political prisoner Saeed Malekpour; Fred and Cindy Warmbier, parents of the late Otto Warmbier, an American student who died after being tortured in North Korea; Korean-American missionary Kenneth Bae; Russian dissident Vladimir Vladimirovich Kara-Murza; Congolese women's rights advocate Julienne Lusenge and American attorney and diplomat Alfred H. Moses. [41]
The 2018 Courage Award was given to Russian dissident Vladimir Vladimirovich Kara-Murza. [42] The 2018 Women's Rights Award was given to Congolese women's rights advocate Julienne Lusenge. [43]
The 2019 summit took place on Tuesday, March 26, 2019. Speakers included Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch; Syrian journalist Abdalaziz Alhamza; American attorney and diplomat Alfred H. Moses; Human Rights Foundation associate Centa Rek; Tibetan filmmaker and activist Dhondup Wangchen; Venezuelan diplomat Diego Arria; Saudi-Canadian activist Ensaf Haidar, wife of jailed Saudi blogger Raif Badawi; Nicaraguan opposition leader Felix Maradiaga; Moroccan politician Hakima El Haite; American journalist James Kirchick; human rights lawyer Juan Carlos Gutiérrez; exiled Burundian poet and activist Ketty Nivyabandi; Canadian MP Michael Levitt; Vietnamese human rights lawyer Nguyễn Văn Đài; Somali activist Nimco Ali; Kurdish journalist and activist Nurcan Baysal; Swedish journalist and editor Paulina Neuding; Richard Ratcliffe, husband of British-Iranian activist Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe; Vicente de Lima II, brother of jailed Filipino lawyer Leila de Lima; and Chinese dissident Yang Jianli. [44]
The 2019 Courage Award was given to Tibetan filmmaker and activist Dhondup Wangchen, who "exposed life under Chinese rule through a groundbreaking documentary, Leaving Fear Behind." [45] [46] The 2019 Women's Right's Award went to Somali activist Nimco Ali for her campaign to end female genital mutilation. [47] [48]
Partners include the following organizations: [49]