Media Advisory: "Human Rights Summit Opens Today in Geneva; 800 Victims, Dissidents, Activists, Diplomats Participating From 67 Countries"
800 Victims, Dissidents, Activists, Diplomats Participating From 67 Countries
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- WITH BACKGROUND ON SPEAKERS: ENGLISH; FRENCH.
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PROGRAM BELOW
GENEVA, - Today and tomorrow, March 8-9, 2010, renowned dissidents, rights activists and experts will come together in Geneva, Switzerland, to urge action against rights abusers, boost democracy dissidents worldwide, and issue a call for internet freedom.
Prominent figures addressing the second annual Geneva Summit for Human Rights, Tolerance and Democracy include Caspian Makan, the fiancé of slain Iranian icon Neda Agha Soltan, Massouda Jalal, first female presidential candidate of Afghanistan, and Robert Boorstin, Google's Director of Corporate and Policy Communications, who will address censorship and internet freedom.The two-day schedule features more than 20 action-oriented presentations and skills-building workshops, exploring a variety of topics, with the objective of advancing the struggle of dissidents against state repression, internet freedom, and reform of the 47-nation UN Human Rights Council.
The 2nd annual Geneva Summit is organized by a global civil society coalition of 25 human rights groups, including Freedom House, Ibuka, UN Watch, and Burmese, Tibetan and Zimbabwean organizations, with support from the Canton of Geneva. (Click here for full list of sponsors.)
Co-chairing the summit’s honorary committee are two of the world’s most recognized former dissidents: Nobel Peace Prize laureate Lech Walesa and playwright Vaclav Havel, the former presidents of Poland and the Czech Republic.
Other featured speakers include former political prisoners from around the world, including Rebiya Kadeer, champion of China’s Uighur minority and Nobel Peace Prize nominee; Bo Kyi, Burmese dissident, winner of the 2008 Human Rights Watch Award; Donghyuk Shin, survivor of North Korean prison camps; Simon Deng, Sudanese rights activist, former slave; and Phuntsok Nyidron, the Buddhist nun from Tibet who served 15 years in jail for recording songs of freedom.The Geneva Summit will also feature eminent governmental and intergovernmental advocates for human rights, including Italian MP Matteo Mecacci, the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly’s Rapporteur for democracy and human rights; Jan Pronk, former Special Representative in Sudan of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan; and Canadian MP and former Minister of Justice Irwin Cotler, Special Counsel on Human Rights and International Justice for the Liberal party.
Last year’s summit, covered by CNN, Reuters, and the Wall Street Journal, brought together former political prisoners Saad Eddin Ibrahim of Egypt, Ahmad Batebi of Iran, José Gabriel Ramón Castillo of Cuba and Soe Aung of Burma, along with other well-known rights activists.
Admission is free. For accreditation and more information, visit http://www.genevasummit.org/. The full program is available below.To arrange interviews or for more information, contact:
Arielle Herzog, media@genevasummit.org- The Geneva Summit will offer live webcast of all its sessions at www.genevasummit.org.
- Follow GenevaSummit on Twitter for brief updates of the debates.
- The Geneva Summit Facebook fan page will provide substantive summaries at the end of every panel session.
- Archived video will be available on YouTube, shortly after each session.
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