"The first victory we can claim is that our hearts are free of hatred. Hence we say to those who persecute us and who try to dominate us: ‘You are my brother. I do not hate you, but you are not going to dominate me by fear. I do not wish to impose my truth, nor do I wish you to impose yours on me. We are going to seek the truth together’. THIS IS THE LIBERATION WHICH WE ARE PROCLAIMING."
Oswaldo José Payá Sardiñas (2002)
GENEVA, February 17, 2025 — Leading dissidents and courageous activists worldwide will gather in Geneva, Switzerland, on February 18, 2025, for the Annual Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy at the Centre International de Conférences Genève.
The Summit, hosted by a coalition of over 30 human rights
organizations, will showcase the voices of the world’s bravest human
rights defenders, many of whom have suffered torture and unjust imprisonment. The event will
also provide a vital platform to family members of political prisoners
who are struggling to free their loved ones.
• Osiris Puerto Terryis a victim of brutality by the Cuban regime, shot twice at the 11J protests.
• Sebastien Lai, democracy activist and son of the pro-democracy media entrepreneur Jimmy Lai.
• Rahima Mahmut, Uyghur human rights activist, translator, and singer.
• Nazanin Afshin-Jamis an Iranian-Canadian human rights and democracy advocate.
• Massouda Jalal, Former Afghan Minister of Women’s Affairs and the first woman to run for President of Afghanistan.
• Husna Jalal, Exiled Afghan women’s rights activist and the daughter of Massouda Jalal.
• Assita Kanko, Belgian Member of the European Parliament, writer, and women’s rights activist.
• Betlehem Isaak, Swedish-Eritrean writer and daughter of Dawit Isaak, the longest arbitrarily detained journalist in the world.
• Times Wang, Human rights lawyer and the son of Chinese political prisoner Wang Bingzhang.
• Namkyi, exiled Tibetan activist and former political prisoner.
• Tirad Badawi, son of Raif Badawi, an iconic figure of freedom of expression in Saudi Arabia.
• Nguyen Van Trang, Vietnamese democracy activist and victim of transnational repression.
Speakers are available for interviews before the event and more
speakers are set to be announced soon. For a full list of speakers,
please see our media kit. For media inquiries or interview requests, contact media@genevasummit.org.
The annual Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy assembles
hundreds of brave dissidents, human rights activists, diplomats,
journalists, and student leaders, shedding light on pressing global
human rights issues. It offers a platform for activists, former
prisoners, and heroes to share their struggles for democracy. The Summit
draws hundreds of attendees and garners extensive media coverage
worldwide from major media outlets, including CNN, BBC, Al Jazeera, Le
Monde, and TIME magazine.
Admission to this year’s Geneva Summit is free and open to the public, but registration is mandatory.
GENEVA, April 2, 2024 — Leading dissidents and courageous activists worldwide will gather in Geneva, Switzerland on May 15, 2024, for the 16th Annual Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy at the Centre International de Conférences Genève.
The Summit, hosted by a coalition of 25 human rights organizations,
will showcase the voices of the world’s bravest human rights defenders,
many of whom have suffered torture, and give a vital platform to family
members of political prisoners who are struggling to free their loved
ones.
Featured speakers include:
Carolina Barrero, Cuban
art historian, writer, and pro-democracy activist who faced repression
from the Cuban regime before fleeing to Spain, where Barrero continues
her advocacy work.
Lesther Alemán, Nicaraguan
student leader and activist who faced persecution after confronting
Ortega in person. Alemán was held as a political prisoner before being
exiled from Nicaragua in 2023.
Lisa Yasko, Member
of the Ukrainian Parliament at the forefront of Ukraine’s public
diplomacy efforts following Russia’s invasion. Founder of the Yellow
Blue Strategy initiative.
Victor Navarro, Venezuelan
journalist and rights advocate who endured arbitrary detention and
torture for criticizing the Maduro regime. Now in exile in Argentina,
Navarro developed a VR experience that shows what conditions are like
for political prisoners in Venezuela’s infamous El Helicoide.
Dr. Kylie Moore-Gilbert, Australian-British
academic freed after two years in Iranian prison as a victim of hostage
diplomacy. She endured solitary confinement and psychological torture
at the hands of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.
Speakers are available for interviews before the event and more
speakers are set to be announced soon. For a full list of speakers
please see our media kit. For media inquiries or interview requests, please contact media@genevasummit.org.
The annual Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy assembles
hundreds of brave dissidents, human rights activists, diplomats,
journalists, and student leaders, shedding light on pressing global
human rights issues. It offers a platform for activists, former
prisoners, and heroes to share their struggles for democracy. The Summit
draws hundreds of attendees and garners extensive media coverage
worldwide from major media outlets including CNN, BBC, Al Jazeera, Le
Monde, and TIME magazine.
Admission to this year’s Geneva Summit is free and open to the public, but registration is mandatory.
Tomorrow human rights heroes from across the globe will gather at #GenevaSummit2024.
The UN Human Rights Council failure is a symptom of wider rot in the United Nations, and in Western Democracies more broadly.
The UN Human Rights system's mechanisms have failed to provide
an accurate assessment of the dismal human rights situation in Cuba. Nor is there any mention of the Cuban government's involvement
in gross and systematic human rights violations in Venezuela and Nicaragua. The final outcome of the Universal Periodic Review of Cuba
was discussed and adopted on September 20, 2018 at the 39th Session
of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland.
Cuban human
rights defender Sirley Avila Leon, a victim of repression, on September 24,
2018 addressed the UN Human Rights Council four days later on what agents of the Cuban
government had done to her.
“On May 24, 2015 living in Cuba I suffered an attack orchestrated by agents
of the state, I was attacked with a machete to kill me cutting off my left hand
and right shoulder while I covered my head with them, then cut my knees leaving
me disabled for life, This was not the first attack I suffered, I was
previously attacked several times, physically and verbally by the political
police in Cuba: they burned my bed, I suffered arbitrary arrests, death
threats, economic damages. Only for demanding better living conditions
for the peasants and their children in a rural area of Las Tunas. My case is
not isolated. In Cuba, the state continues to violate the human rights of
Cubans, murders, imprisons and banishes those who demand rights and repress
their families. To save my life, in 2016 I escaped from Cuba, since then my son,
Yoerlis Peña Avila, has been threatened with death and repressed on several
occasions. At this moment I fear for his life.”
UN experts continued to whitewash
and cover up the humanitarian disaster unfolding in Venezuela. On
February 28, 2019 UN Watch's Hillel Neuer exposed the right to food
expert's cover up of the famine in Venezuela.
VIDEO: Today when I asked @UN_HRC "right to food" expert @HilalElver (chosen by the Castro regime) why she ignores the plight of millions of hungry #Venezuela families, she said "there are two sides of this conflict..."@KenRoth, will you condemn this ex-@HRW board member?
In the 1930s in Ukraine "journalist" Walter Duranty helped to cover up
the deaths of millions in a famine manufactured by Josef Stalin's
regime. That UN Human Rights experts are helping to cover up a famine in Venezuela in the present gave warning to future developments, and the failure of this institution.
Did these outrages change anything the next time Venezuela or Cuba were to be voted onto the UN Human Rights Council in 2019 and 2020 respectively? The short answer is no, but the longer response is even more devastating.
China, Cuba, and Russia elected to the UNHRC in 2020. Venezuela was already a member
In 2020, Cuba got 170 votes out of 192 possible.Twenty two countries did not vote in favor of the Castro regime, but there are 27 member countries
of the European Union. One can also count the United States among the
votes against. This means that most probably [at least] six members of
the European Union voted in favor of the Castro regime," and that runs
counter to the shared values
of the European Union which include ‘respect for human dignity,
freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human
rights.’ Those democracies that voted for a 63 year old communist
dictatorship that systematically violates human rights and seeks to
undermine international human rights standards, did not live up to those
principles.
In addition to Cuba, China and Russia were also elected to the UN Human Rights Council in 2020, and Venezuela had already been a member for a year having been easily re-elected to the Council in 2019.
On April 7, 2022 the Russian Federation was expelled from the UN Human Rights Council by a full vote of the UN General Assembly. “Today should be a turning point. EU states and others that often defend the
election of gross abusers as somehow a good thing have now effectively
abandoned that position in favor of a principled approach, more
consistent with the rights council’s own membership criteria,” said Hillel Neuer, of UNWatch, who had campaigned for years for Russia's removal.
The
next time that Cuba will be subjected to a universal periodic review is in 2023. The last examination did not reflect the human rights
situation on the island. The Cuban government corrupted and abused
the process turning it into a circus. Havana had flooded
the compilation of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) with front
groups celebrating the dictatorship's "human rights achievements" and
drowning out the reports by legitimate NGOs.
Hopefully, the expulsion of Russia will mark a new chapter for the UN Human Rights Council and a time for reflection. “The 158 UN member states who two years ago voted to make Putin a world judge on human rights—and the others who stood by silently—should
ask forgiveness from the Ukrainian men, women and children who are now
paying the price of Russia’s brutal invasion of their country, in Bucha
and elsewhere,” said Neuer.
Now is the time to clean up the dysfunctional UN Human Rights Council, and remove the worse human rights abusers, so that it can carry out its duties at this critical time. This would also symbolize a moral renewal of the United Nations to face the critical challenges to peace that are unfolding on the world stage today.
Vladimir Putin's Russia was first, let the communist dictatorship of Cuba be next to be voted off the UN Human Rights Council. May Cuba's 2023 Universal Periodic Review hold the dictatorship accountable for the atrocities committed between 2018 and 2022.
"The world is in greater peril from those who tolerate or encourage
evil than from those who actually commit it." - Albert Einstein
The 14th Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy
convenes in Switzerland on April 6, 2022. Over the past fourteen years this summit has been and continues to be a vital space for
dissenting voices to gather and engage in an important conversation: to
diagnose the problems challenging human rights and dignity and to do
better and be better in order to turn around the 16 year global decline in human rights.
The first edition was held on April 19, 2009, "one day before the international community gather[ed] in
Geneva to address racism, intolerance and persecution in the High-Level
Segment of the UN Durban Review Conference (DRC)" and it had a longer title, "Geneva Summit for Human Rights, Tolerance and Democracy" and the tag line, "Stop Discrimination, Go for Human Rights." UN Watch,
a Geneva based NGO whose mission is "to monitor the performance of the
United Nations by the yardstick of its own Charter", brought together an
international coalition of nineteen organizations to co-sponsor the
summit.
Arielle Herzog, Leon Saltiel, Hillel C. Neuer and other UN Watch staff
were the chief organizers of the first six editions and responsible for
their great success and establishing this space for dialogue. UN Watch
today continues to lead this coalition and build on this great legacy,
but it is important to return to the beginning to see how we arrived
were we are today.
The UN Durban Review Conference (DRC) of 2009 was one more example of the ongoing moral bankruptcy of the United Nations. The star speaker, and apparently the only head of state invited to speak, was Iran's notorious president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who engages in holocaust denial
and has called for the destruction of Israel. This conference,
ostensibly to confront the problem of racism, began a gathering point of
the worse dictatorships on the planet to legitimize themselves and demonize Israel.
Meanwhile, in marked contrast, the Geneva Summit for Human Rights, Tolerance and Democracy was held at the Centre International de Conférences Genève, just down the street from the Palais des Nations
UN compound where the DRC was being held. Human rights defenders,
victims of repression and political dissidents gathered to share their
experiences, bear witness, and attempt to wield real political force from
the power of human conscience. This is what the martyred Czech
dissident and philosopher Jan Patočka called the "solidarity of the shaken". This coalition called for an end to discrimination and for human rights promotion.
The first summit's inaugural speech was given by by Iranian Activist and President of Stop Child Executions, Nazanin Afshin Jam,
who outlined the human rights situation in Iran. She addressed that
under Iranian laws the life of a woman is worth half of a man's and
other sexist practices, the execution of homosexuals, and the executions
of minors. The Iranian activist also gave an overview of the summit
that began at 9:00am and ended at 6:30pm.
The inaugural summit was divided into four sessions that were tied into the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Session I was titled "Racism, Genocide, and Crimes Against Humanity: Assessing the Genocide Convention After 60 Years" and the panel was made up by Irwin Cotler, Counsel for genocide victims and dissidents, Canadian
MP, Gregory Stanton, President of Genocide Watch and International
Association of Genocide Scholars, Ester Murawajo, Tutsi survivor,
founder of AVEGA and Dominique Sopo, President of SOS Racisme.
Session II was titled "Resisting Authoritarianism: Human Rights, Democracy, and the Dissident Movement"
with speakers Bo Kyi, Burmese dissident and winner of the Human Rights
Prize from Human Rights Watch, Saad Eddin Ibrahim, Egyptian dissident,
José Gabriel Ramón Castillo, Cuban dissident and prisoner of conscience,
and Esra'a Al Shafei, dissident blogger, Mideast Youth - Thinking
Ahead.
Session III was titled "Torture and Cruel and Inhuman Treatment"
with speakers Nazanin Afshin-Jam, president of Stop Child Execution,
Parvez Sharma, Producer of the documentary Jihad for Love, and Ahmad
Batebi, Iranian dissident.
Session IV was titled "Freedom of Expression and 'Defamation of Religion'"
with panelists Mohamed Sifaoui, Journalist, Algeria, Floyd Abrams,
U.S. advocate for First Amendment press freedom, Patrick Gaubert,
President of LICRA and Member of the European Parliament.
The 2nd Geneva Summit was held on March 8-9, 2010, strategically timed
to coincide with the main annual session of the U.N. Human Rights
Council. The objective of the 2010 Geneva Summit was to give voice to
victims of
the world’s worst abusers, empowering those who suffer repression under
closed systems of government.
The program featured plenary sessions, workshops and training sessions
over two days. A large portion of the program was dedicated to
presentations—personal and compelling testimony—from victims of the
world’s worst abusers.
On March 8, 2010 gave the opening address
on behalf of the Geneva Summit Coalition for the second edition of the
Geneva Summit. Sadly, these words remain relevant today, but now the
global decline in political freedoms and civil liberties has expanded
from four to thirteen years in a row.
Regrettably, the chief international body charged with protecting human
rights is failing to live up to its mission to stop these and other
abuses. The Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council—as acknowledged in a
recent report by 17 of its 47 member states, supported by Amnesty
International, Human Rights Watch, and the International Commission of
Jurists—falls short in its handling of country situations, in the
efficiency of the process involved in highlighting violations, and in
its reactivity to crisis situations. Strong politicization of the
Council, driven by bloc-based voting patterns, has led to inaction in
face of atrocity and abuse. We saw this sad spectacle last week within
the Council, first with the secretary general of Iran’s High Council for
Human Rights denying the documented and rampant instances of torture,
executions, and mass detentions of Iranians followed by the Cuban
Foreign Minister’s speech who echoing his Iranian colleague also denied
Cuba’s horrible human rights record and to add insult to injury went on
to blame the United States for the death of Orlando Zapata Tamayo as
well as slander the deceased Cuban prisoner of conscience as a criminal.
Little wonder that the March 1st magazine issue of Newsweek contains an
article titled “The Downfall of Human Rights.” The article highlights
Freedom House's report "Freedom in the World," released in January, and
reveals a global decline in political freedoms and civil liberties for
the fourth year in a row, the longest drop in the almost 40 years that
the survey has been produced.
According to Summit organizers, "[m]ore
then 800 people registered to attend the summit and over 1600 watched
the live webcast. 35 dissidents and human rights activists took the
floor to condemn and testify about some of the worst human rights
situations around the world and issued a joint call for Internet
Freedom around the world."
Cuban dissident Nestor Rodriguez Lobaina was denied an exit visa by the
Castro regime despite being invited to attend the Geneva Summit, but the
coalition did not stop there and started a campaign for him to attend.
In the end Nestor addressed the summit by phone, and would attend and
address the 2012 Summit in person. Still remember the powerful and
haunting testimony of Caspian Makan, human rights activist, and fiancé of Neda Agha-Soltan, who was murdered in Iran by pro-regime agents months earlier on June 20, 2009. Another speaker who made a powerful impression was Yang Jianli,
activist in the 1989 Tiananmen Square protest, a former political
prisoner, and founder of Initiatives for China and today a friend. The
Geneva Summit created network of activists that remain in contact and
continue to collaborate.
Cuban human rights defenders and victims of repression have had a voice
at this gathering over the past fourteen years to denounce their plight and call
for human rights and freedom for Cuba. Former Cuban prisoners of
conscience and human rights defenders Jose Gabriel Ramon Castillo (2009, 2010), Luis Enrique Ferrer Garcia (2011), Nestor Rodriguez Lobaina (2012), Regis Iglesias (2013), and Juan Francisco Sigler Amaya (2015), human rights defender and daughter of martyred actvist Rosa Maria Paya (2013, 2016), human rights defender Damarys Moya Portieles (2014), human rights defender and social democrat Manuel Cuesta Morua (2015), former prisoner of conscience, human rights defender and artist Danilo MaldonadoEl Sexto (2017), Sakharov laureate Guillermo Fariñas Hernández (2018), human rights lawyer Juan Carlos Gutiérrez representing Cuban prisoner of conscience Dr. Eduardo Cardet (2019), Cuban lawyer, journalist, and human rights defender who serves as Executive Director of the nonprofit Cubalex Laritza Diversent (2020), Cuban political performance artist Tania Bruguera (2021), and Cuban visual artist and political activist Hamlet Lavastida(2022).
2013 was the last time I addressed the Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy
during the fifth edition of the gathering and less than seven months
after Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas and Harold Cepero Escalante had been
murdered by State Security on July 22, 2012. Present in the room were
Rosa María Payá Acevedo, and Regis Iglesias Ramírez of the Christian
Liberation Movement. Both had addressed the meeting.
The 5th Annual Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy
today is an opportunity for reflection. Unfortunately, the human rights
situation around the world has not improved over the past five years
and in many instances worsened. The question is why? Cuban democratic
opposition activist, Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas, when awarded the Sakharov
prize for Freedom of Thought on December 17, 2002 observed that
“The cause of human rights is a single cause, just as the people of the
world are a single people. The talk today is of globalization, but we
must state that unless there is global solidarity, not only human rights
but also the right to remain human will be jeopardized.” The past
decade has demonstrated that he was right.
Cuban state security has worked for decades trying to discredit and
silence authentic dissident voices and continues to today with their spies and agents of influence.
It is a constant struggle to frustrate their efforts. They are willing
to lie, slander, assault and even murder those who have the courage to
dissent. The 2012 killings of Oswaldo Payá and Harold Cepero and the firing on unarmed protesters during the 11J protests in Cuba demonstrate this.
For decades Cuban victims of repression said that nobody listened, and in 1987 an award winning documentary titled "Nobody Listened"
interviewed Cuban political prisoners and human rights defenders
describing the lack of international solidarity.
Over the past fourteen
years thanks to the Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy their
voices have been and continue to be heard.
The next summit begins on Wednesday, April 6, 2022 at 9:00am Central European Time. For more
information visit the Geneva Summit website here. Use hashtags #GenevaSummit2022 and #GS22
Today in Geneva, Switzerland just steps away from where the Universal Periodic Review will be held on May 16th there was a self-described "Shadow UPR" that highlighted more recent cases, and the steps taken by the dictatorship in Cuba to avoid being held accountable. Below are the videos of the entire event and are worth watching.
Sadly there are those who will be unable to do so because they were victims of extrajudicial killings carried out by agents of the Castro over the past four years. Below are three cases, but sadly there are more.
Yunisledy Lopez Rodriguez: Brutally murdered at age 23 in 2014
Yunisledy Lopez Rodriguez was 23 years old, the mother of two small
children and she lived in Vista Alegre, in the Municipality of
Majabiquoa in Las Tunas, Cuba. She had suffered harassment from state security agents, who had wanted to
evict her and her children from their home for her activism in the
Civics and Truth movement.
Yunisledy found out that her then boyfriend "Ruber" had been given the
order to kill Cuban dissident Sirley Avila Leon by state security. Yunisledy immediately told Sirley Avila Leon of the danger and on May 21, 2014 when Sirley's home was
set on fire formally complained to the police. She reported that her
partner had told her that he would murder Sirley and that through the
above action had attempted to carry it out. The police never made a
pronouncement on the matter and did nothing.
Afterwards "Ruber" warned Yunisledy and told her that if she did not want to be killed
that she should join him in Camaguey where he had been given the
possibility to work as a "cuenta propista" as a reward for carrying out
his arson attack against Sirley Avila Leon and to give the impression
that he was in a prison elsewhere. [This is an aspect of the job sector opportunities that Amnesty missed in their report.] She denounced the new threat to the police but no action was taken against
him and he went away. After two months approximately September 20-21,
2014, another man, the father of her young son appears at her home and tells her that
he'll kill her. But instead rapes her in front of her children and
leaves.
Immediately she went to the police and made a complaint because he was
supposedly a prison escapee, but the police took no action. They told her not to worry that he was already back in prison.
Yunisledy called Sirley on September 24, 2014 and told her that they
both knew why he was being sent to kill her. Yunisledy asked Sirley to care for her children because she had no police protection.
On September 26, 2014 while preparing food for her children the
individual known as "El Tejon" entered the house and stabbed her 18
times in front of her two kids. This was done to give the appearance
of a crime of passion.
Diosbel Díaz Bioto killed on December 16, 2014
On December 16, 2014 the Cuban coastguard ram and sank a boat with 32 refugees, one of them,
Diosbel Díaz Bioto, was killed. Article 13 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states: "(1) Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state. (2) Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country." This is completely and systematically violated in Cuba.
Yuriniesky Martínez with his dad, son, and on (right) how he was found in 2015
Yuriniesky Martínez Reina (age 28) was killed by state security chief Miguel Angel Río Seco Rodríguez in the Martí municipality of Matanzas, Cuba on April 9, 2015 for trying to leave Cuba. He was part of a group of young men who were building a boat near Menéndez beach to
flee the island, when they were spotted trying to leave and were shot at by state security. Yuriniesky was shot in the back and left to die.He was found face down in some brush.
Reflection on ten years of summits and a call to attend the next one
The 10th Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy convenes in Switzerland on February
20, 2018. Over the past decade this summit has been a vital space for dissenting voices to gather and engage in this important conversation to diagnose the problems challenging human rights and dignity and to do better and be better in order to turn the global decline of human rights around.
The first edition was held on April 19, 2009, "one day before the international community gather[ed] in
Geneva to address racism, intolerance and persecution in the High-Level
Segment of the UN Durban Review Conference (DRC)" and it had a longer title, "Geneva Summit for Human Rights, Tolerance and Democracy" and the tag line, "Stop Discrimination, Go for Human Rights." UN Watch, a Geneva based NGO whose mission is "to monitor the performance of the United Nations by the yardstick of its own Charter", brought together an international coalition of nineteen organizations to co-sponsor the summit.
Arielle Herzog, Leon Saltiel, Hillel C. Neuer and other UN Watch staff were the chief organizers of the first six editions and responsible for their great success and establishing this space for dialogue. UN Watch today continues to lead this coalition and build on this great legacy, but it is important to return to the beginning to see how we arrived were we are today.
The UN Durban Review Conference (DRC) of 2009 was one more example of the ongoing moral bankruptcy of the United Nations. The star speaker, and apparently the only head of state invited to speak, was Iran's notorious president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who engages in holocaust denial and has called for the destruction of Israel. This conference, ostensibly to confront the problem of racism, began a gathering point of the worse dictatorships on the planet to legitimize themselves.
Meanwhile, in marked contrast, the Geneva Summit for Human Rights, Tolerance and Democracy was held at the Centre International de Conférences Genève, just down the street from the Palais des Nations UN compound were the DRC was being held. Human rights defenders, victims of repression and political dissidents gathered to share their experiences, bear witness and attempt to wield real political force from the power of human conscience. This is what the martyred Czech dissident and philosopher Jan Patočka called the "solidarity of the shaken'. This coalition called for an end to discrimination and for human rights promotion.
The first summit's inaugural speech was given by by Iranian Activist and President of Stop Child Executions, Nazanin Afshin Jam, who outlined the human rights situation in Iran. She addressed that under Iranian laws the life of a woman is worth half of a man's and other sexist practices, the execution of homosexuals, and the executions of minors. The Iranian activist also gave an overview of the summit that began at 9:00am and ended at 6:30pm.
The inaugural summit was divided into four sessions that were tied into the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Session I was titled "Racism, Genocide, and Crimes Against Humanity: Assessing the Genocide Convention After 60 Years" and the panel was made up by Irwin Cotler, Counsel for genocide victims and dissidents, Canadian
MP, Gregory Stanton, President of Genocide Watch and International
Association of Genocide Scholars, Ester Murawajo, Tutsi survivor,
founder of AVEGA and Dominique Sopo, President of SOS Racisme.
Session II was titled "Resisting Authoritarianism: Human Rights, Democracy, and the Dissident Movement" with speakers Bo Kyi, Burmese dissident and winner of the Human Rights Prize from Human Rights Watch, Saad Eddin Ibrahim, Egyptian dissident, José Gabriel Ramón Castillo, Cuban dissident and prisoner of conscience, and Esra'a Al Shafei, dissident blogger, Mideast Youth - Thinking Ahead.
Session III was titled "Torture and Cruel and Inhuman Treatment" with speakers Nazanin Afshin-Jam, president of Stop Child Execution, Parvez Sharma, Producer of the documentary Jihad for Love, and Ahmad Batebi, Iranian dissident.
Session IV was titled "Freedom of Expression and 'Defamation of Religion'" with panelists Mohamed Sifaoui, Journalist, Algeria, Floyd Abrams, U.S. advocate for First Amendment press freedom, Patrick Gaubert, President of LICRA and Member of the European Parliament.
The 2nd Geneva Summit was held on March 8-9, 2010, strategically timed to coincide with the main annual session of the U.N. Human Rights Council. The objective of the 2010 Geneva Summit was to give voice to victims of
the world’s worst abusers, empowering those who suffer repression under
closed systems of government.
The program featured plenary sessions, workshops and training sessions over two days. A large portion of the program was dedicated to presentations—personal and compelling testimony—from victims of the world’s worst abusers.
On March 8, 2010 gave the opening address on behalf of the Geneva Summit Coalition for the second edition of the Geneva Summit. Sadly, these words remain relevant today, but now the global decline in political freedoms and civil liberties has expanded from four to thirteen years in a row.
Regrettably, the chief international body charged with protecting human
rights is failing to live up to its mission to stop these and other
abuses. The Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council—as acknowledged in a
recent report by 17 of its 47 member states, supported by Amnesty
International, Human Rights Watch, and the International Commission of
Jurists—falls short in its handling of country situations, in the
efficiency of the process involved in highlighting violations, and in
its reactivity to crisis situations. Strong politicization of the
Council, driven by bloc-based voting patterns, has led to inaction in
face of atrocity and abuse. We saw this sad spectacle last week within
the Council, first with the secretary general of Iran’s High Council for
Human Rights denying the documented and rampant instances of torture,
executions, and mass detentions of Iranians followed by the Cuban
Foreign Minister’s speech who echoing his Iranian colleague also denied
Cuba’s horrible human rights record and to add insult to injury went on
to blame the United States for the death of Orlando Zapata Tamayo as
well as slander the deceased Cuban prisoner of conscience as a criminal.
Little wonder that the March 1st magazine issue of Newsweek contains an
article titled “The Downfall of Human Rights.” The article highlights
Freedom House's report "Freedom in the World," released in January, and
reveals a global decline in political freedoms and civil liberties for
the fourth year in a row, the longest drop in the almost 40 years that
the survey has been produced.
According to Summit organizers, "[m]ore
then 800 people registered to attend the summit and over 1600 watched
the live webcast. 35 dissidents and human rights activists took the
floor to condemn and testify about some of the worst human rights
situations around the world and issued a joint call for Internet
Freedom around the world."
Cuban dissident Nestor Rodriguez Lobaina was denied an exit visa by the Castro regime despite being invited to attend the Geneva Summit, but the coalition did not stop there and started a campaign for him to attend.
In the end Nestor addressed the summit by phone, and would attend and address the 2012 Summit in person. Still remember the powerful and haunting testimony of Caspian Makan, human rights activist, and fiancé of Neda Agha-Soltan, who was murdered in Iran by pro-regime agents months earlier on June 20, 2009. Another speaker who made a powerful impression was Yang Jianli, activist in the 1989 Tiananmen Square protest, a former political prisoner, and founder of Initiatives for China and today a friend. The Geneva Summit created network of activists that remain in contact and continue to collaborate.
2013 was the last time I addressed the Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy during the fifth edition of the gathering and less than seven months after Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas and Harold Cepero Escalante had been murdered by State Security on July 22, 2012. Present in the room were Rosa María Payá Acevedo, and Regis Iglesias Ramírez of the Christian Liberation Movement. Both had addressed the meeting.
The 5th Annual Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy today is an opportunity for reflection. Unfortunately, the human rights situation around the world has not improved over the past five years and in many instances worsened. The question is why? Cuban democratic opposition activist, Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas, when awarded the Sakharov prize for Freedom of Thought on December 17, 2002 observed that “The cause of human rights is a single cause, just as the people of the world are a single people. The talk today is of globalization, but we must state that unless there is global solidarity, not only human rights but also the right to remain human will be jeopardized.” The past decade has demonstrated that he was right.
Cuban state security has worked for decades trying to discredit and silence authentic dissident voices and continues to today with their agents and agents of influence. It is a constant struggle to frustrate their efforts. They are willing to lie, slander, assault and even murder those who have the courage to dissent. The 2012 killings of Oswaldo Payá and Harold Cepero and the aftermath demonstrate this.
For decades Cuban victims of repression said that nobody listened, and in 1987 an award winning documentary titled "Nobody Listened" interviewed Cuban political prisoners and human rights defenders describing the lack of international solidarity. Over the past ten years thanks to the Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy their voices have been heard.
This is the first reflection on the past decade of Geneva Summits. The next summit begins on Tuesday, February 20, 2018 at 9:00am. For more information visit the Geneva Summit website here.
Banging on table, Cuba, China, Russia & Pakistan lash out after call to exclude Chavez, other abusers from UN rights council
Concerted U.N. speeches slam Chavez bid for rights council seat;
Dictatorships urge "striking NGO statement from the record"
VENEZUELAN EX-POLITICAL PRISONER ELIGIO CEDENO CHALLENGED HIS OPPRESSOR; CHAVEZ REP CALLS HIM A "TERRORIST" AND "CRIMINAL," UN WATCH A "U.S. LACKEY"
GENEVA, June 28 - UN
Watch's "Stop Chavez" campaign heated up today when Cuba, Russia, China
and Pakistan lashed out at concerted speeches by high-profile guests
Eligio Cedeno and Thor Halvorssen, in what one observer called a "major
take-down" of Venezuela's Chavez regime and its bid for a seat on the
U.N. Human Rights Council.(See video at mark 27:20.) UN Watch, which heads an international campaign of parliamentarians and human rights groups opposed to Venezuela's candidacy, organized the speech today by Eligio Cedeno, Venezuela's most-wanted man (photo below). The banker
and former political prisoner, who escaped the clutches of Hugo Chavez
for asylum in the U.S., confronted his oppressor in a powerful plenary statement.
Exercising its right of reply, Venezuela's representative called
Cedeno a "terrorist and criminal who fled justice." The Chavez diplomat
falsely accused the U.S. of having invited Cedeno to the council, which
he said was "to smear the reputation of my country." He also accused UN
Watch of being a U.S. "lackey.“ (See video at mark 1:55:30)
And in a concerted effort with UN Watch, Thor Halvorssen, the Venezuelan-born head of the Human Rights Foundation
-- whose mother was shot by Chavez forces -- also took the floor to
challenge Venezuela's credentials, as well as those of existing members Cuba, China, Russia and Saudi Arabia. Click here for speech.
Thor Halvorssen of the Human Rights Foundaiton
Shouting repeatedly for the U.N. chair to stop the speech, the Cuban delegate flew into a range, fists banging on the table, and knocked over his chair.
Cuba insisted that non-governmental activists taking the floor at the U.N. “cannot
question the hopes and aspirations of states to become members of the
Human Rights Council, or their right to be members. You cannot say that
my country does not have a right to be a member of this council.” Havana's delegate demanded that Halvorssen’s statement be “struck from the record.”
Russia and Pakistan similarly claimed that Halvorssen spoke out of turn. China said that activists at the U.N. “are not entitled to challenge the right of a country to become a member of the council.”
However, UN Watch director Hillel Neuer said that a quick intervention by the U.S. apparently convinced the chair to let the statement stand.
"Today
was a rare moment at the U.N.," said Neuer. "We succeeded in putting
Chavez -- who throws independent judges in jail, persecutes student
activists, and aids mass murderers like Ahmadinejad and Assad -- on the
defensive."
When Halvorssen referred to “authoritarian” regimes, Cuba interrupted again, calling this a “disrespectful term,” and asked the chair to prohibit him from speaking. China also objected, saying no one at the U.N. human rights council has a right “to label a sovereign state, to point a finger at a country that is a member, or which wishes to become a member.”
"Let me tell you China, Russia and Cuba do not belong as world judges on human rights when they not only enable mass murder in Syria but also systematically violate the human rights of their own citizens. It's a sick joke they shouldn't be there." - Hillel Neuer of UN Watch on CTV News on February 28, 2012
Bashar al-Assad and Raul Castro
The regime in Cuba has a long and shameful history with regards to the United Nations Human Rights Council without even mentioning its human rights record on the island which is dismal. The 19th session of the UNHRC began on Monday, February 27, 2012 in Geneva, Switzerland. Nevertheless during the first 48 hours of the session the regime's dismal behavior continues unchanged. The Castro brothers over the past half century have defended genocidal regimes of all ideological stripes in Argentina, China, Ethiopia, Libya, Sri Lanka, Syria and Zimbabwe just to list a few. They are also enemies of free expression. They are adding more chapters of infamy to the regime's long and dark record of violating human rights and making common cause with the worse human rights violators on the planet.
Bashar al-Assad and Fidel Castro, Damascus May 16, 2001
Defending the regime in Syria that has since March 2011 slaughtered more than 7,500 of its own people should dispel any illusions that the Raul Castro regime is nothing more than a continuation of the brutal regime his brother established with him in 1959 and like the Assads wish to perpetuate regardless the costs in human lives. When the High Commissioner for Human Rights was addressing the situation in Syria the Cuban dictatorship's diplomats interrupted her raising a point of order.
Hillel Neuer of UN Watch on CTV on February 28, 2012 on atrocities in Syria and Cuban regime's enabling of the slaughter there.
Hillel Neuer, the executive director of UN Watch (a non-governmental organization established in 1993 based in Geneva whose mandate is to monitor the performance of the United Nations by the yardstick of its own Charter), in an interview on CTV addressing the atrocities committed by the Assad regime in Syria also touched on the nefarious role of the Cuban government on the UN Human Rights Council and his organization's call for China, Russia and Cuba to be taken off the Council explaining that:
"[O]n these issues you have to lead the way, speak the truth and you never know when it will be implemented. Let me tell you China, Russia and Cuba do not belong as world judges on human rights when they not only enable mass murder in Syria but also systematically violate the human rights of their own citizens. It's a sick joke they shouldn't be there."
The Castro regime's behavior is garnering attention and outrage. Inside of Cuba voices are speaking out through cyberspace and denouncing the government's behavior. One of these voices Yoani Sanchez, on February 29, 2012 over Twitterexpressed: I feel profound shame at the attitude taken by the government of Cuba to what happens to the people of Syria. -
Outside of Cuba, the actress and humanitarian Mia Farrow onFebruary 28, 2012 over Twitter took the Cuban regime's argument in favor of the Syrian regime to task tweeting: Sovereignty MUST come with responsibilities MT @UNWatch: #Cuba: Reiterate rejection of any attempt to undermine sovereignty of Syria.
The times are changing and they do not favor totalitarian regimes.
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