The Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy is an annual human rights summit sponsored by a coalition of 20 non-governmental organizations. Each year, on the eve of the

United Nations Human Rights Council The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), CDH is a United Nations body whose mission is to promote and protect human rights around the world. The Council has 47 members elected for staggered three-year terms on a regional group basis. ...

's main annual session, activists from around the world meet to raise international awareness of human rights situations.

History

2009

The first summit took place on Sunday, April 19, 2009, prior to the United Nations

Durban Review Conference The Durban Review Conference is the official name of the 2009 United Nations World Conference Against Racism (WCAR), also known as Durban II. The conference ran from Monday 20 April to Friday 24 April 2009, and took place at the United Nations O ...

. Speakers included, among others, Iranian activist Nazanin Afshin Jam; Egyptian dissident

Saad Eddin Ibrahim Saad Eddin Ibrahim ( arz, سعد الدين إبراهيم, ) (born 31 December 1938) is an Egyptian sociologist and author. He is one of Egypt's leading human rights and democracy activists, and a strong critic of former Egyptian President Hosni ...

; American human rights activist Ellen Bork; Gibreil Hamid of Darfur, Sudan; Soe Aung of Burma; Marlon Zakeyo of Zimbabwe; Cuban opposition activist and former political prisoner José Gabriel Ramón Castillo; and Venezuelan activist Gonzalo Himiob Santome.

2010

The 2010 summit took place on Monday, March 8, 2010. Speakers included, among others,

Massouda Jalal xDr. Massouda Jalal (داکتر مسعوده جلال) is the first woman in the history of Afghanistan who ran for the Office of the President of Afghanistan in 2002, and again in 2004. She holds the distinction of being the first woman to compe ...

, former Afghan Minister of Women's Affairs; exiled Uyghur leader Rebiya Kadeer; Bob Boorstin,

Google Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...

's policy director; Caspian Makan, fiancé of slain Iranian icon Neda Agha Soltan; Cuban dissident José Gabriel Ramón Castillo; and Bo Kyi of Burma, a former political prisoner and secretary of the

Assistance Association for Political Prisoners Assistance Association of Political Prisoners (Burma) ( my, နိုင်ငံရေးအကျဉ်းသားများကူညီစောင့်ရှောက်ရေးအသင်း; abbreviated AAPP or AAPPB) is an independen ...

2011

The 2011 summit took place on Tuesday, March 15, 2011. Speakers included, among others, Ugandan LGBT rights activist Jacqueline Kasha; Cuban dissident

Luis Enrique Ferrer Garcia Luis is a given name. It is the Spanish form of the originally Germanic name or . Other Iberian Romance languages have comparable forms: (with an accent mark on the i) in Portuguese and Galician, in Aragonese and Catalan, while is archaic ...

; Guang-il Jung, a North Korean labor camp escapee; Turkmenistani activist Farid Tukhbatullin; North Korean activist Cheong Kwang Il; and Libyan dissident Mohamed Eljahmi.

2012

The 2012 summit took place on Tuesday, March 13, 2012. Speakers included, among others, Chinese dissidents Yang Jianli and Ren Wanding; Cuban activist Néstor Rodríguez Lobaina; Zimbabwean activist

Jestina Mukoko Jestina Mukoko is a Zimbabwean human rights activist and the director of the Zimbabwe Peace Project. She is a journalist by training and a former newsreader with the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation. In March 2010 Mukoko was one of ten human r ...

; Burmese activist

Zoya Phan Zoya Phan (born 27 October 1980) is a Burmese political activist. She resides in the United Kingdom, and is the Campaign Manager of the human rights organization Burma Campaign UK. She was an outspoken critic of the Burmese government when it ...

; former Egyptian political prisoner Maikel Nabil; North Korean defectors Joo-il Kim and Song Ju Kim; Iranian activist Ebrahim Mehtari; and Syrian activist Hadeel Kouki.

2013

The 2013 summit took place on Tuesday, February 19, 2013. Speakers included, among others, Pakistani women's rights activist Mukhtar Mai; Moroccan writer and atheist

Kacem El Ghazzali Kacem El Ghazzali (, ; born 24 June 1990), is a Moroccan-Swiss secularist essayist and activist and is one of the few publicly atheist Moroccans. Kacem speaks English, as well as German, French, Arabic and Berber. Mostly known for his publicly voi ...

; Tibetan politician Dicki Chhoyang; Syrian politician Randa Kassis; former Cuban political prisoner Régis Iglesias; Iranian dissident

Marina Nemat Marina Nemat ( fa, مارینا نِمت, russian: Марина Немат; born 22 April 1965) is the author of two memoirs about her life growing up in Iran, serving time in Evin Prison for speaking out against the Iranian government, escapi ...

;

Pyotr Verzilov Pyotr Yurievich Verzilov ( rus, Пётр Ю́рьевич Верзилов, p=ˈpʲɵtr vʲɪrˈzʲiləf; born 25 October 1987) is a Russian-Canadian artist and activist who came to prominence as the unofficial spokesperson of the band Pussy Rio ...

, husband of jailed

Pussy Riot Pussy Riot is a Russian feminist protest and performance art group based in Moscow that became popular for its provocative punk rock music which later turned into a more accessible style. Founded in August 2011, it has had a membership of appr ...

member

Nadezhda Tolokonnikova Nadya Tolokonnikova ( rus, Надя Толоконникова, p=, full name Nadezhda Andreevna Tolokonnikova, rus, Надежда Андреевна Толоконникова, p=nɐˈdʲeʐdə təlɐˈkonʲːɪkəvə; born November 7, 1989) ...

; and Kazakh journalist Lukpan Akhmedyarov.

2014

The 2014 summit took place on Tuesday, February 25, 2014. Speakers included, among others, Mauritanian anti-slavery activist Biram Dah Abeid; Tibetan MP Tenzin Dhardon Sharling; Chinese political dissident Yang Jianli; Canadian MP and human rights lawyer

Irwin Cotler Irwin Cotler, PC, OC, OQ (born May 8, 1940) is a retired Canadian politician who was Member of Parliament for Mount Royal from 1999 to 2015. He served as the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada from 2003 until the Liberal gov ...

; North Korean human rights activist Ahn Myong Chul; Naghmeh Abedini, wife of imprisoned Iranian-American pastor Saeed Abedini; and the aunt of imprisoned Venezuelan opposition leader

Leopoldo López Leopoldo Eduardo López Mendoza (born 29 April 1971) is a Venezuelan opposition leader. He co-founded the political party Primero Justicia in 2000 with Henrique Capriles and Julio Borges and was elected mayor of the Chacao Municipality of Car ...

. The summit's Courage Award was given to Chinese dissident

Chen Guangcheng Chen Guangcheng (born November 12, 1971) is a Chinese civil rights activist who has worked on human rights issues in rural areas of the People's Republic of China. Blind from an early age and self-taught in the law, Chen is frequently descr ...

, who was the keynote speaker.

2015

The 2015 summit took place on Tuesday, February 24, 2015. Speakers included, among others,

Yeonmi Park Yeonmi Park ( ko, 박연미; born 4 October 1993) is a North Korean defector and activist whose family fled from North Korea to China in 2007 and settled in South Korea in 2009, before moving to the United States in 2014. Her family turned to ...

, a North Korean defector and human rights activist; Lim Il, a North Korean defector and former slave laborer; a Nigerian teenager, identified simply as "Saa", who escaped after being abducted by Boko Haram; Hong Kong protest leaders

Alex Chow Alex Chow Yong-kang (; born 18 August 1990) is a social activist from Hong Kong and current doctoral candidate in geography at the University of California, Berkeley.Lester Shum Lester Shum O-fai ( zh, t=岑敖暉; born 11 June 1993) is a Hong Kong social activist and politician. He was a leader of the 2014 pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong and served as deputy secretary-general of the Hong Kong Federation of Student ...

; Pierre Torres, a French journalist who was held hostage by ISIS for ten months; Turkish journalist

Yavuz Baydar Yavuz Baydar is the Editor-in-Chief of Ahval, an online news site published in English, Turkish and Arabic. Baydar is a Turkish journalist, blogger and an activist for media freedom and independence. Baydar has lived outside Turkey since the 20 ...

; Moroccan politician Fouzia Elbayed; and Tibetan politician Dicki Chhoyang. The summit's Courage Award was given to

Raif Badawi Raif bin Muhammad Badawi ( ar, رائف بن محمد بدوي, also transcribed Raef bin Mohammed Badawi; born 13 January 1984) is a Saudi writer, dissident and activist, as well as the creator of the website ''Free Saudi Liberals''. Badawi wa ...

, an imprisoned Saudi Arabian writer and activist, and accepted on his behalf by

Elham Manea Elham Manea (born 1966) Is a vocal advocate for the separation of state and religion in Islamic countries, freedoms of expression and belief, and the defense for civil, human, women's, and minorities rights in the Arab MENA region. She is a write ...

, Professor at the University of Zurich. The Women's Rights Award was given to

Masih Alinejad Masih Alinejad ( fa, مسیح علی‌نژاد, born Masoumeh Alinejad-Ghomikolayi ( fa, معصومه علی‌نژاد قمی کُلایی), September 11, 1976) is an Iranian-American journalist, author, and women's rights activist. Alinejad cu ...

, an Iranian journalist and the founder of

My Stealthy Freedom My Stealthy Freedom is an online movement that was started in 2014 by Masih Alinejad, an Iranian-born journalist and activist based in the United Kingdom and the United States. This movement started as a Facebook page, called ''My Stealthy Freed ...

2016

The 2016 summit took place on Tuesday, February 23, 2016. Speakers included, among others, Ensaf Haidar, wife of jailed Saudi Arabian blogger

; 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 Svitlana Zalishchuk ( uk, Світлана Заліщук, born 24 October 1982) is a politician, public leader, journalist, and human rights campaigner and former member of Ukrainian Parliament (member of the Committee for Foreign Affairs). In ...

, 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 William David Trimble, Baron Trimble, (15 October 1944 – 25 July 2022) was a British politician who was the first First Minister of Northern Ireland from 1998 to 2002, and leader of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) from 1995 to 2005. He wa ...

, former First Minister of Northern Ireland; and Chinese dissident Yang Jianli. The summit's Courage Award was given to jailed Venezuelan opposition leaders

Antonio Ledezma Antonio José Ledezma Díaz (born 1 May 1955) is a Venezuelan lawyer, politician and former political prisoner. After unsuccessfully challenging for the leadership of Democratic Action in 1999, he founded a new party, the Fearless People's All ...

and

. Relatives of the two men accepted the award on their behalf. The 2016 Womenn'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.

2017

The 2017 summit took place on Tuesday, February 21, 2017. Speakers included Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch;

, chair of the

Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights The Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights (RWCHR) is a Montreal-based non-governmental organization dedicated to pursuing justice through the protection and promotion of human rights. The RWCHR's name and mission is inspired by Raoul Wallenbe ...

; 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

;

Chito Gascon Jose Luis Martin Cosgayon Gascon (; 26 May 1964 – 9 October 2021), also known as Chito Gascon (), was a Filipino lawyer, civil organizer, and human-rights activist. In 2015, he was appointed by then President Benigno S. Aquino III as the Chair ...

, Filipino activist; Taghi Rahmani, Iranian journalist and husband of

Narges Mohammadi Narges Mohammadi (; born 21 April 1972) is an Iranian human rights activist and the vice president of the Defenders of Human Rights Center (DHRC), headed by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi. In May 2016, she was sentenced in Tehran to 16 ...

;

Alfred H. Moses Alfred H. Moses (born July 24, 1929) is an American attorney and diplomat who served as the U.S. Ambassador to Romania from 1994 to 1997. Biography Moses was born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland. After graduating from Baltimore City College ( ...

, chair of UN Watch; El Sexto, Cuban graffiti artist and activist; Nyima Lhamo, exiled Tibetan activist and niece of

Tenzin Delek Rinpoche Lithang Tulku Tenzin Delek Rinpoche or Tenzing Deleg () (1950 – 2015) was a Tibetan Buddhist leader from Garze, Sichuan. He is also known for working to develop social, medical, educational and religious institutions for Tibetan nomads in eas ...

; Biram Dah Abeid, Mauritanian anti-slavery activist;

Astrid Thors Astrid Gunilla Margareta Thors (born 6 November 1957) has been a Member of the Finnish Parliament 19 March 2003 – 4 September 2013. A Finnish-Swedish politician, formerly of the Swedish People's Party, Thors is a Candidate of Law and held seve ...

, 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. The 2017 Women's Rights Award was given to "Shirin", a

Yazidi Yazidis or Yezidis (; ku, ئێزیدی, translit=Êzidî) are a Kurmanji-speaking endogamous minority group who are indigenous to Kurdistan, a geographical region in Western Asia that includes parts of Iraq, Syria, Turkey and Iran. The ma ...

woman who escaped sexual slavery in the

Islamic State An Islamic state is a state that has a form of government based on Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a translation of the Arabic term ...

, and author of ''I Remain a Daughter of the Light'' (''Ich bleibe eine Tocher des Lichts''), recently published in Germany. The 2017 Courage Award was given to Mohamed Nasheed, former president of the Maldives and the country's leading human rights activist.

2018

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 Aslı Erdoğan (born 8 March 1967) is a prize-winning Turkish writer, author, human rights activist, and columnist for '' Özgür Gündem'' and formerly for ''Radikal,'' ex political prisoner, particle physicist. Her second novel has been publis ...

; Cuban psychologist, journalist, and activist Guillermo Fariñas; Zimbabwean pastor and dissident

Evan Mawarire Evan Mawarire (born 7 March 1977) is a Zimbabwean pastor and democratic activist. He came to prominence during the 2016–17 Zimbabwe protests that challenged the rule of Robert Mugabe’s government. It was reported that Mawarire urged the peop ...

; Effy Nguyen, son of Vietnamese activist and political prisoner Nguyen Trung Ton; Pakistani journalist

Taha Siddiqui Taha Siddiqui is a Pakistani journalist based in Paris. He is the alumnus of Institute of Business Administration, Karachi and a winner of the Albert Londres Prize. He is also founder of the ''SAFE Newsrooms''. In January 2018, in Islamabad gu ...

; Chinese dissident Yang Jianli; Hong Kong bookshop owner Lam Wing-kee; Tibetan monk and activist Golog Jigme; British journalist

Jonny Gould Jonny Gould is a British media presenter, sports journalist, and political commentator. He has formerly broadcast on Sky News, Smooth Radio, and Talksport among others. Gould has commented on antisemitism, conservative politics, and the s ...

; Farida Abbas Khalaf, Yazidi author of ''The Girl Who Beat ISIS'';

Ruth Dreifuss Ruth Dreifuss (born 9 January 1940 in St. Gallen) is a Swiss politician affiliated with the Social Democratic Party. She was a member of the Swiss Federal Council from 1993 to 2002, representing the Canton of Geneva. She was elected to the Swis ...

, first female president of Switzerland; Congolese human rights activist Julienne Lusenge; María-Alejandra Aristeguieta Álvarez, coordinator of Iniciativa Por Venezuela; Canadian former MP

; Venezuelan politician and former political prisoner

; 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 Maziar Bahari ( fa, مازیار بهاری; born May 25, 1967) is an Iranian-Canadian journalist, filmmaker and human rights activist. He was a reporter for '' Newsweek'' from 1998 to 2011. Bahari was incarcerated by the Iranian government fr ...

; Maryam Malekpour, sister of Iranian political prisoner Saeed Malekpour; Fred and Cindy Warmbier, parents of the late

Otto Warmbier Otto Frederick Warmbier (December 12, 1994 – June 19, 2017) was an American college student who was imprisoned in North Korea in 2016 on a charge of subversion. In June 2017, he was released by North Korea in a vegetative state and died ...

, 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

. The 2018 Courage Award was given to Russian dissident Vladimir Vladimirovich Kara-Murza. The 2018 Women's Rights Award was given to Congolese women's rights advocate Julienne Lusenge.

2019

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

; Human Rights Foundation associate Centa Rek; Tibetan filmmaker and activist Dhondup Wangchen; Venezuelan diplomat

Diego Arria Diego Enrique Arria Salicetti (born 8 October 1938 in Caracas, Venezuela), is a Venezuelan politician and diplomat who served as Venezuela's Permanent Representative to the United Nations (1991–1993) and President of the Security Council (Mar ...

; Saudi-Canadian activist Ensaf Haidar, wife of jailed Saudi blogger

; 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 Michael Levitt, ( he, מיכאל לויט; born 9 May 1947) is a South African-born biophysicist and a professor of structural biology at Stanford University, a position he has held since 1987. Levitt received the 2013 Nobel Prize in Chemistr ...

; Vietnamese human rights lawyer Nguyễn Văn Đài; Somali activist

Nimco Ali Nimko Ali ( so, Nimco Cali), alternatively spelled Nimco (born ), is a British social activist of Somali heritage. She is the co-founder and CEO of The Five Foundation, a global partnership to end female genital mutilation (FGM). Ali under ...

; Kurdish journalist and activist Nurcan Baysal; Swedish journalist and editor Paulina Neuding; Richard Ratcliffe, husband of British-Iranian activist

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe (; fa, نازنین زاغری ; born 26 December 1978) is an Iranian-British dual citizen who was detained in Iran from 3 April 2016 as part of a long running dispute between Britain and Iran. In early September 2016, ...

; Vicente de Lima II, brother of jailed Filipino lawyer Leila de Lima; and Chinese dissident Yang Jianli. 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''." The 2019 Women's Right's Award went to Somali activist

for her campaign to end female genital mutilation.

Partners

Partners include the following organizations: *

UN Watch UN Watch is a Geneva-based non-governmental organization whose stated mission is "to monitor the performance of the United Nations by the yardstick of United Nations Charter, its own Charter". It is an accredited NGO in Special Consultative Statu ...

* Darfur Peace and Development Center * Directorio Democratico Cubano * Freedom & Roam Uganda *

Human Rights Foundation The Human Rights Foundation (HRF) is a non-profit organization that focuses on promoting and protecting human rights globally, with an emphasis on closed societies. HRF organizes the Oslo Freedom Forum. The Human Rights Foundation was founded i ...

* Human Rights Activists in Iran * Initiatives for China * International League against Racism and Anti-Semitism * Stop Child Executions * World Uighur Congress * Viet Tan *

Uyghur American Association The Uyghur American Association ( ug, ئامېرىكا ئۇيغۇر جەمئىيىتى, ئامېرىكا ئۇيغۇر بىرلىكى, translit=Amérika Uyghur Birliki, ; zh, s= 维吾尔裔美国人协会, p=Wéiwú'ěryì Měiguórén Xiéhu� ...

* Collectif Urgence Darfour * Ingenieurs Du Monde *

Inter-African Committee on Traditional Practices Affecting the Health of Women and Children The Inter-African Committee on Traditional Practices Affecting the Health of Women and Children (IAC) is a non-governmental organization (NGO) which seeks to change social values and raise consciousness towards eliminating female genital mutilatio ...

International Federation of Liberal Youth The International Federation of Liberal Youth (IFLRY) is an international liberal youth organization. It consists of a global membership of national youth organizations. These are often but not exclusively affiliated with political parties that ...

* Tibetan Women's Association - Switzerland * Justice for North Korea *

Liberal International Liberal International (LI) is a worldwide organization of liberal political parties - a political international. It was founded in Oxford in 1947 and has become the pre-eminent network for liberal parties, aiming to strengthen liberalism aroun ...

* Freedom Rights Project * Iniciativa por Venezuela

References

{{reflist, 2

External links

Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy official site
International conferences