NGO Summit on Discrimination and Persecution, Sep. 21-22, NY
NGO Summit, 31 August 2011
NEW YORK, August 30, 2011 – A coalition of human rights groups today announced a major summit on September 21-22, 2011 to spotlight the world’s most urgent human rights situations. The Global Summit Against Discrimination and Persecution will be held next to UN Headquarters in New York at the same time as world leaders gather for the 66th Session of the UN General Assembly and the 10th anniversary commemoration of the UN’s Durban conference on racism.
Bringing together prominent dissidents and human rights activists from countries with abysmal human rights records—including China, Syria, Sudan, Zimbabwe, North Korea and Iran—the conference will produce draft UN resolutions on governments that grievously abuse human rights through policies of genocide, torture, discrimination, and repression of civil, religious and political freedoms. The proposed resolutions will be presented to world leaders attending the major UN events that week.
The conference features a stellar line-up of speakers: Yang Jianli, a senior Chinese human rights activist and veteran of the Tiananmen Square uprising of 1989, Rebiya Kadeer, the leading voice of China’s oppressed Uighur minority, Jacqueline Kasha, a courageous defender of LGBT rights in Uganda, Ahed al Hendi, a Syrian blogger exiled for opposing the Assad regime, John Dau, a survivor of genocide in Sudan, and many more. For the full list of speakers, visit www.ngosummit.org.
Mariane Pearl, an author and vocal advocate for the rights of women, and the widow of slain Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, will deliver the keynote address for the summit’s special focus on women of courage, followed by the testimony of female human rights heroes from around the world.
For more information about the Summit, including the entire list of participants, please visit us online at www.ngosummit.org.
For instant updates, “Like” the Summit at http://www.facebook.com/ngosummit, and follow on Twitter @wehaveadream_GS.
Spotlight on the Summit’s Human Rights Heroes:
Yang Jianli
Tiananmen Square survivor, former prisoner of conscience, president of Initiatives for China, representative of jailed Liu Xiaobo at the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize ceremony.
Mariane Pearl
Journalist, author and women’s rights activist. Mariane was five months pregnant in 2002 when her husband, Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, was kidnapped and brutally murdered in Pakistan. Her inspiring memoir was made into a film starring Angelina Jolie in the role of Mariane Pearl.
John Dau
Genocide survivor, refugee, one of the “Lost Boys of Sudan” featured in the award-winning documentary God Grew Tired of Us. Through his foundation John Dau is transforming health care in the war-torn region of South Sudan by building medical clinics and training community health workers.
Rebiya Kadeer
The leading spokesperson and human rights advocate of the Uyghur people. Ms. Kadeer was jailed for six years in a Chinese prison for standing up to Chinese government repression.
Together with:
• Geng He — Human rights abuses in CHINA
• Tran Khai Thanh Thuy — Human rights abuses in VIETNAM
• Grace Kwinjeh — Human rights abuses in ZIMBABWE
• Thaung Htun — Human rights abuses in BURMA
• Normando Hernandez — Human rights abuses in CUBA
• Berthe Kayitesi — Genocide in RWANDA
• Adeeb Yousif — Genocide in SUDAN
• Jacqueline Kasha — Human rights abuses in UGANDA
• Irwin Cotler — Canadian MP, former Minister of Justice and Attorney General, McGill University law professor, constitutional and comparative law scholar, international human rights lawyer, counsel to prisoners of conscience, peace activist
• Joel Brinkley — Professor of journalism at Stanford University, author, former New York Times reporter, editor and Pulitzer Prize-winning foreign correspondent
• And many more human rights heroes and eminent figures: click here
Themes:
• Discrimination against women
• Freedom of speech
• Discrimination against religious minorities
• Persecution of dissenters and human rights defenders
• Discrimination against LGBT
• Genocide prevention
• UN reform
• And more
ENDS