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About the Geneva Summit

We meet on an historic occasion: the eve of the United Nations Durban Review Conference on Racism, Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, a rare international gathering of world leaders, diplomats, and civil society activists for the sake of human rights and equality.

The eyes of the world are now focused on Geneva.

Who will guide the assembled delegates of the world’s governments to properly address the human rights issues and situations of discrimination around the globe that most require attention?

Who will seek justice for millions of human rights victims around the world, by demanding accountability from the governments that oppress them? By demanding implementation—for the victims most in need—of the Durban Declaration’s call for equality, non-discrimination and fundamental freedom without distinctions of race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status?
Who will speak out for the basic principles of human rights, tolerance and democracy that were bequeathed to us—in the aftermath of the barbarous acts of World War II—by the drafters of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Genocide Convention, both of which now mark their 60th Anniversary?

The Geneva Summit for Human Rights, Tolerance, and Democracy brings together in one place some of the world’s most prominent human rights heroes, activists, dissidents, genocide survivors, legal scholars, diplomats, and statesmen. Victims and former prisoners of conscience will share with us their struggle, their suffering, and their dream for a more humane, free and tolerant world. Let us pledge to act so that their personal sacrifice will not be in vain.

Organized by a global coalition of human rights organizations, the Geneva Summit offers a momentous occasion for civil society to define the human rights agenda on behalf of the millions of voiceless victims around the world—from Darfur to Tibet, Burma to Iran—who every day suffer from discrimination, repression and persecution.

One day before the opening of Durban Review Conference, we, human rights activists representing all regions of the world, gather here in the Geneva International Conference Center, directly across from the United Nations, united with conviction and determination to issue a clarion call upon all governments to live up to the promise of human dignity, equality and liberty.

Today’s Geneva Summit is the joint product of civil society organizations around the world whose activists worked diligently for the past year, with the help of our dedicated Secretariat, to create this unique forum. Together, let us turn the dream of human rights into a reality for all.