Human Rights First Summit

This year was the first year Human Rights First put together an international summit with prominent leaders from the Human Rights World. Some of the discussants included, His Holiness the Dalai Lama; Sharon Hom; HRF Executive Director, China; Carlos Ponce- founder of "Development and Justice Consortium" of Venezuela, adviser of more than 47 NGOs in Latin America, the U.S. and the Caribbean; Maziar Bahair- an Iranian-Canadian playwright, film-maker and reporter for newsweek who was arrested in 2009 during the Iranian elections protest with no charges, destained and interrogated for 118 days; and many more. This was a day filled with three amazing sessions talking about human rights and how human rights defenders across the globe are being totured, imprisoned, and disappearing by the hands of their own government. Dr. Hamidah Marican, founder of the Sister of Islam, was extremely insightful about what is happening in the muslim culture. She is personally being investigated under the Sadition Act and if convited could be detained indefinitely without trial! The book that her organization wrote was also banned under that same act due to acusations that it would confuse the Muslim people and they would question their religion. She and the Sisters of Islam fought this and had the ruling overturned, however, that decision was then appealed by the government. Sharon Hom spoke of an attorney who disappeared over one year ago. The man was tortured and once he published this event, "the axe really came down." When asked what happened to him, the government first responded by saying there are 4 billion people in China, they cannot be responsible for just one. They later stated that he was alive and working in another city and that he has been contacting his wife. Shortly after, his wife made a statement that if he is indeed alive, she has not heard from him in almost a year. Hom continued to say that almost any public action can earn a person the label of "critic" and also be punished for it. Even researching AIDS could endager a person and label them a "critic." Many people have been exiled, imprisoned, and tortured. Others have claimed that they are embarassed to be Chinese due to the actions of their government. The scary part is, countires such as Belarus are going to the Chinese government to learn how to control the internet in their own countries. Carlos Ponce of Venezuela told the story of a judge who was thrown in jail by the President merely by applying the law. The President threw a man in prison for 3 years without giving him a trial and in Venezuela, special priviledges are supposed to be given to individuals who are in this situation. A judge applied those priviledges and was imprisoned by the President of Egypt because he was unhappy about they law enacted. Julis Kaggwa, from the Civil Society Coalition on Human Rights and Constitutional Law, Uganda, spoke today urging that people begin to view sexual preference as a human right. People are being arrested and interrogated about homosexual information even before the Uganda Bill on Homosexuality is even inacted! I heard many other accounts all similiar to these; human rights defenders are being silenced internationally with no hope in the near future. It really made me appreciate being able to live in a country where we value freedom is speech. While we may not always agree, I do not have to fear for my safety or my future for voicing my opinion. This is something that needs to be adopted world wide and many have stated today that the first step is education. The youth is our new hope; they need to be engaged in and out of school learning what human rights are and why they need to be protected. The Summit continues tomorrow and I am so excited to hear from more of the prominent discussants from around the world!
-Joanna