Hillel Neuer Profile picture
Feb 22 15 tweets 8 min read
BREAKING: A global coalition of 25 human rights groups announced today that its prestigious international human rights award for 2022 will go to @EnesFreedom, the NBA athlete and activist risking his career for taking on China’s persecution of the Uyghurs.
genevasummit.org/25-human-right…
Freedom will receive the 2022 @GenevaSummit Courage Award on Wednesday, April 6th, addressing a ceremony to be attended by U.N. ambassadors, human rights activists and journalists from around the world attending the 14th annual Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy.
Freedom was chosen for his heroic efforts to sound the alarm on China’s brutal human rights abuses.

Co-organizer of the conference include UN Watch, Liberal International, Human Rights Foundation, the World Uyghur Congress and more than 20 other human rights groups.
“I want to say thank you to the Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy for its support and for shining a global spotlight on human rights abuses in China,” said @EnesFreedom.

“I hope this encourages other athletes to stand up for what is right.”
“Despite China’s propaganda, the regime does not represent the Olympic values of respect and friendship, it’s a brutal dictatorship that oppresses its people,” said Freedom.
Raised in Turkey, Freedom has been targeted for daring to call out human rights violations by Erdogan.

Turkey canceled his passport, and imprisoned his father.

On a 2017 visit to Indonesia, Freedom barely escaped police officers that the Turkish government had sent after him.
When the basketball star condemned Chinese President Xi Jinping as a “brutal dictator,” his games were pulled in China, with whom the NBA enjoys a lucrative relationship.
The @GenevaSummit for Human Rights and Democracy has been has been a leading voice at the United Nations for the cause of the Uyghurs, hosting dissidents such as @KadeerRebiya in 2010, @bahtiyar_mer in 2011, @JewherIlham in 2020, @nuryturkel in 2020, @RayhanAsat in 2021, and
and @RushanAbbas Abbas this year.

The Geneva Summit has been proud to include the World @UyghurCongress as one of its founding coalition partners.
Past Courage Award laureates include jailed Russian opposition leader @Navalny, jailed Saudi blogger @raif_badawi, Mauritanian anti-slavery campaigner @BiramDahAbeid_, Tibetan filmmaker Dhondup Wangchen, Russian dissident @vkaramurza, Maldives human rights hero @MohamedNasheed...
and Venezuelan opposition leaders @alcaldeledezma & @leopoldolopez and Chinese dissident @iguangcheng.

genevasummit.org/awards
@EnesFreedom will join other courageous champions of human rights from around the world at this year’s Geneva Summit, including dissidents and relatives of political prisoners from China, Syria, Cuba, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Zimbabwe & Nicaragua, who will expose gross abuses.
The @GenevaSummit global gathering is acclaimed as a one-stop opportunity to hear from and meet frontline human rights advocates, many of whom have personally suffered imprisonment and torture. It’s a focal point for dissidents worldwide.
The annual conference will be held on the heels of the first 2022 session of the UN Human Rights Council, which now includes China, Russia, Libya, Cuba and Venezuela as members.

Videos of past speaker testimonies are available at genevasummit.org.
Admission to this year’s April 6, 2022 Geneva Summit is free and open to the public, but registration is mandatory.

The conference will also be available via live webcast.

Follow @GenevaSummit.

genevasummit.org

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More from @HillelNeuer

Feb 22
“The Secretary-General is greatly concerned by the decision by the Russian Federation related to the status of certain areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine.”
“He calls for the peaceful settlement of the conflict in eastern Ukraine, in accordance with the Minsk Agreements, as endorsed by the Security Council in resolution 2202 (2015).
“The Secretary-General considers the decision of the Russian Federation to be a violation of the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine and inconsistent with the principles of the Charter of the United Nations.
Read 6 tweets
Feb 17
“The UNHRC has appointed to lead its controversial investigation on Israel an individual who calls Israel an ‘apartheid state,’ backs the campaign to boycott and sanction Israel, and signs statements lobbying governments to punish the Jewish state.”

cnsnews.com/article/intern…
“Yet despite the submission by a Geneva-based non-governmental organization of a 30-page document backing its assertion that Navi Pillay is not fit to head the HRC’s first open-ended investigation targeting one country, the council’s president on Wednesday defended the choice.”
“HRC president Federico Villegas said in response to queries that the council head, when selecting members of investigative bodies, ‘places the utmost importance on examining the independence and impartiality of each member in order to ensure the objectivity of the body.’”
Read 25 tweets
Feb 16
Human rights activist Mohammed Ashraf Abed, a member of the Islamic Resistance Movement's al-Qassam Brigades, was killed today while building a tunnel of peace. alqassam.ps/arabic/%D8%AA%… Image
“Al-Qassam Brigades mourned the martyr Al-Qassami / Muhammad Ashraf Abed (23 years), from the Taybeh mosque in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, who today rose to Al-Ula as a martyr, God Almighty, following the collapse of a tunnel for resistance.” Image
And the battalions said: “He dedicated himself to Allah, striving until he met Allah for that. And the blood of our martyrs will remain a beacon on the path to liberating Palestine and a fire that burns the occupiers until they are defeated from our land, Allah willing.” Image
Read 4 tweets
Feb 16
Navi Pillay campaigns with the Boycott Israel movement to “Sanction Apartheid Israel.”

So the UNHRC made her the impartial head of its inquiry into alleged Israeli discrimination.

Pillay embodies the cynicism & injustice of the UNHRC.

Say No to Pillay: change.org/p/navi-pillay-… ImageImage
Navi Pillay, the impartial Chair of the UNHRC inquiry, condemned "Israel’s occupation and apartheid regime."

She campaigned for countries to "ban arms trade and military-security cooperation with Israel" and to "suspend free trade agreements with Israel."
mcusercontent.com/36542688e35393…
Navi Pillay lobbied for governments to:

• "Adopt a UN resolution to implement targeted and lawful sanctions on Israel, including a military embargo."

• "Activate the UN Special Committee on Apartheid to address Israel’s regime over the indigenous people of Palestine." Image
Read 5 tweets
Feb 14
Report: Syria's Assad regime has such a tight grip on aid groups’ access to the country that it has become normal for relatives of senior Assad regime officials to have jobs within United Nations bodies.

theguardian.com/world/2022/feb…
The report found that Mohamad Hamsho, a businessman close to both the army elite and the dictator’s brother Maher al-Assad, had won U.N. procurement contracts to strip metals in areas retaken by the government and rework them for sale at his Hadeed Metal Manufacturing Company.
.@UNDP contracted the “Aleppo Defenders Legion”, a pro-regime militia that forcibly displaced Syrians, to clear rubble and rehabilitate the city they helped destroy.

The UN did zero human rights due diligence when giving out millions of dollars in contracts to serial abusers.
Read 4 tweets
Feb 14
BREAKING: The head of a new UN inquiry into last spring’s Hamas-Israel war was accused today of making prejudicial statements on the issues under investigation, compromising her impartiality, and was asked to resign in a legal brief filed today by UN Watch.unwatch.org/head-of-un-pro…
According to a 30-page complaint submitted today by UN Watch, Navi Pillay, a former South African judge and UN human rights chief, violated UN rules by failing to disclose numerous of her prior statements that directly prejudge matters before the inquiry.
unwatch.org/wp-content/upl…
Many of the utterances in question occurred mere weeks before she was appointed by the UN Human Rights Council this summer, leaving little room to imagine how Pillay could envisage the issues any differently so soon afterwards.
Read 24 tweets

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