Thread by @HillelNeuer

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