For a third year in a row Liberal International has co-hosted the annual Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy, which saw some of the bravest human rights defenders and activists from around the world come together and testify about the grievous abuses they have suffered in the hands of the world’s most notorious authoritarian regimes.
Addressing the opening of the Summit at the United Nations Human Rights Council, LI Human Rights Committee Member and ALDE Party Vice-President Ilhan Kyuchyuk MEP (MRF, LI full-member) cautioned of the emergence of a new trend called monocracy. “There is no doubt that we meet at a critical time in the history of human rights characterized by the new rise of monocracy. Nowadays there are many countries which violate or do not even recognise fundamental human rights like freedom of speech, freedom of thought, freedom of movement and freedom of assembly. I would remind these regimes and their leaders that human rights cannot be taken away for any reason as they are a given” he said.
Representing the International Federation of Liberal Youth (IFLRY, LI full-member), which is one of the co-hosts of the Summit alongside LI, the President of the Young Liberals of Canada, Justin Kaiser, also delivered some welcoming remarks. He spoke at length of the greater sense of political participation among young people and reminded that they have an obligation to protect human rights.
mmediate Past President of the Parliamentary Assemble of the Council of Europe Anne Brasseur MP (DP, LI full-member) delivered the keynote speech on the occasion of the presentation of the Geneva Summit’s Women’s Rights Award. She stressed that human rights, democracy and the rule of law know and should never know no border and commended the recipients of the award for their courage, conviction and determination to protect the rights of women who had been targeted by the Daesh regime.
Addressing the laureates, Vian Dakhil, the only female Yazidi Member of the Iraqi Parliament and Professor Dr. Jan Ilhan Kizilhan, psychologist and international expert in transcultural Psychiatry and traumatology, Brasseur said: “This award is not only a small recognition for the tremendous work you are doing but should also be and must be a reminder to us all that we have to be your spokespersons in order to help stop this on-going violation of the most fundamental human rights of the most vulnerable population.”
Dr. Irwin Cotler (LPC, LI full-member), Former Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, led a panel discussion on authoritarianism and fighting oppression alongside Ensaf Haidar, wife of the jailed Saudi liberal blogger and 2016 LI Prize for Freedom Laureate Raif Badawi, who shared the story of her husband’s struggle.
The Geneva Summit Courage Award, which was jointly awarded by all of the Summit’s coalition partners including LI, IFLRY and UN Watch (LI partner), was presented to the Venezuelan political prisoners Antonio Ledezma, mayor of Caracas and Leopoldo Lopez, leader of the political party Primero Justicia, for their courage to fight the regime of President Maduro in Venezuela.
The next Geneva Summit will take place on 21 February, 2017.
