Program for the Geneva Summit
Geneva, Switzerland, March 8-9, 2010
FOR THE CONFERENCE CONCLUDING DOCUMENT, THE GENEVA DECLARATION ON INTERNET FREEDOM: Click here.
Monday, March 8, 2010
8:00 Registration
9:00 Welcome by John Suarez, International Secretary of Directorio, on behalf of the Geneva Summit coalition (Video: part 1, part 2) (Full Text)
9:10 Welcome by the Canton of Geneva, Isabel Rochat, Conseillère d’Etat (Video: part 1, part 2) (Full Text)
9:20 Rising Powers, Rising Rights Compliance? Case Study of China (Video: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6, part 7, part 8, part 9)
- Chair: Amb. Alfred Moses, Chair of UN Watch
- Rebiya Kadeer, Uighur rights champion, former political prisoner, Nobel Peace Prize nominee
- Yang Jianli, Activist in 1989 Tiananmen Square protest, former political prisoner, founder of Initiatives for China (Full Text)
- Phuntsok Nyidron, Buddhist nun, Tibet’s longest serving female political prisoner (Full Text)
11:00 Tribute to International Women’s Day (Video: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6, part 7, part 8, part 9, part 10)
Women and the Right to Equality
- Irwin Cotler, Canadian MP, former minister of Justice and Attorney-General, Professor, Human Rights Activist
- Massouda Jalal, Afghanistan's first female candidate for presidency, former Minister of Women's Affairs (Full Text)
12:30 Lunch
13:30 Authoritarianism and Dissent: 21st Century Horizons (Video: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6, part 7, part 8, part 9, part 10, part 11, part 12)
- Chair: Matteo Mecacci, Italian MP, OSCE Parliamentary Assembly Rapporteur for Rights and Democracy
- Nestor Rodriguez Lobaina, Cuban dissident, former political prisoner (Full Text)
- Jose Gabriel Ramon Castillo, Cuban dissident and prisoner of conscience (Full Text)
- Tamara Suju, Venezuelan human rights lawyer (Full Text)
- Donghyuk Shin, North Korean dissident, survivor of prison labor camps
- Bo Kyi, Burmese dissident, former political prisoner (Full Text)
- Dewa Mavhinga, Zimbabwean Lawyer and Researcher
15:30 Genocide and the Humanitarian Challenge: Case Study of Sudan (Video: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6, part 7, part 8, part 9, part 10, part 11)
- Chair: Colum de Sales Murphy, President of the Geneva School of Diplomacy
- Simon Deng, Sudanese rights activist, former slave (Full Text)
- Amer Adam Hesabu, Darfur refugee, Chair of Darfur Community in the UK (Full Text)
17:00 Human Rights Advocacy: Skills-Building Workshops (concurrent):
Defending Prisoners of Conscience and UN Mechanisms
Jared Genser and Maran Turner, Freedom Now (Video: part 1, part 2, part 3)
New Media for Human Rights: Activism in the Internet Age
Yves Bennaim, New Media Consultant (Video: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8)
Human Rights Advocacy in the International Arena
Paula Schriefer, Freedom House (Video: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6, part 7, part 8, part 9)
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
9:00 Censorship and Internet Freedom (Video: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6, part 7, part 8, part 9, part 10)
- Chair: Bart Woord, President of IFLRY
- Robert Boorstin, Google Director of Corporate and Policy Communications (Full Text)
- Alexander Ntoko, Head, Corporate Strategy Division, International Telecommunication Union (ITU)
10:30 Next Generation: Young Rights Defenders and the Blogosphere (Video: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6, part 7, part 8, part 9, part 10)
- Chair: Naomi Ichihara Rokkum, Vice-President of IFLRY
- Ruslan Asadov, Co-Leader of the OL! Youth Movement, Azerbaijan
- Diego Scharifker, Venezuelan student leader (Full Text)
- Duy Hoang, spokesman of Viet Tan, an unsanctioned pro-democracy political party in Vietnam (Full Text) (Powerpoint Presentation)
12:00 Lunch
13:30 Free and Fair Elections — Case Study: Iran (Video: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6, part 7, part 8, part 9, part 10)
- Chair: Stephane Bussard , UN correspondent for Le Temps
- Caspian Makan, Human Rights Activist, Fiancé of Neda (Full Text)
- David Suurland, Expert on Internet freedom, Activist for Iranian protest movement
- Shaheen Sariri, International Law Student and Director of the Foreign Relations Committee of Human Rights Activists in Iran. (Full Text)
15:00 Freedom of Expression: Key Battlegrounds (Video: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6, part 7, part 8, part 9)
- Chair: Guy Mettan, Director of the Swiss Press Club, journalist, President of the Geneva Parliament
- Pierre Fournel, Director of LICRA
- Prof. Cole Durham, Legal scholar, member of OSCE Panel of Experts on Freedom of Religion or Belief
- Renata Arianingtyas, Program Officer for Pluralism, Tifa Foundation, Indonesia
16:30 Towards the 2011 Reform: Can the UN Human Rights Council Be Fixed? (Video: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6, part 7, part 8, part 9, part 10, part 11)
- Chair: Frank Jordans, Associated Press reporter at the United Nations in Geneva
- Ambassador Jean-Baptiste Mattei , Permanent Representative of France to the UN in Geneva (Full Text)
- Edward Mortimer, vice-president, Salzburg Seminar, former Chief Speechwriter and Director of Communications in the Executive Office of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan (Full Text)
- Hillel Neuer, UN Watch Executive Director, vice-president of Conference of NGOs Geneva Special Committee on Human Rights
18:30 Dissidents Announce Internet Freedom Declaration
Concluding Remarks