If we freedom fighters
do not get united to end
dictatorship, dictators
will get united to end us democracy.
On October 3rd, 2022,
the Human Rights Foundation held a
one day conference at Town Hall
in midtown Manhattan, bringing
together political activists from
around the world.
Thor Halvorssen is the organization's
founder and CEO.
The United Nations is
a massive club for dictators.
The rich, powerful and corrupt get
together in Davos.
Well, some of the world's bravest
people get together at the Oslo
Freedom Forum.
They then start trading ideas.
Syria, China.
Zimbabwe, Hong Kong,
Russia.
Human rights is basically limits
on government power.
What are these things that are
above a government in an election?
And that's what we refer to as civil
and political rights.
We focus on freedom of expression.
The freedom to enter and leave your
own country.
Freedom from slavery.
Freedom from arbitrary detention and
due process.
Freedom from torture.
Reason spent the day backstage
talking to the participants and
organizers about the Human Rights
Foundation's mission of building a
united community to counter
rising authoritarianism around
the globe. And about the group's
radical goal of pressuring Western
democracies to cut human rights
abusers like China and Saudi
Arabia off from the global
economy.
The Crown Prince just received the
equivalent of political fellatio
from President Biden.
The dictator proposed to me.
He decided to inflict pain
by drugging and raping
me.
There were no wonkish policy panels
or PowerPoint slides cluttered with
data and footnotes.
There are many issues which
had no stakeholders.
Human pain is one of them.
The conference featured a series of
TED Talk style speeches
delivered without notes and designed
to forge an emotional connection
between the audience and the
presenters.
Right now, Hong Kong has
more than 1100 political
prisoners.
More than 10,000 political
arrests. And many more are fleeing
and leaving out of the city.
Anna Kwok worked as an anonymous
online organizer during Hong Kong's
pro-democracy protests of 2019,
which took place as China was
seizing power over the once free
city.
To talk about Hong Kong is
definitely a very difficult
topic because I was thinking
that I would go back and
be a Hong Konger.
Not being able to see the people
you love or even not
being able to see
the kind of, you know, Hong Kong
scenery that you have.
You're used to your entire life
as haunting, but you just
have to live on and
you have to figure out a way to stay
hopeful.
Why does the CCP have so much power
over us?
Mostly because the international
society has allowed them to
gain and rise to this status.
In the case of Hong Kong, the world
should have unplugged China.
Unplugged China.
The CCP would fall,
but they won't because there are so
many people in the elites of these
countries who are in business with
China.
Yes, I think we would absolutely be
able to unplug China, but it would
cost us something.
That's not true.
That's not true. In the case of
Cuba, it was never real.
If we had actually unplugged Cuba
economically, yeah, they would fall.
Democracies are really bad
at making this case
to both people inside those
countries and the people outside it.
For eight years,
they haven't heard us.
We sent millions of reports
about torture, sexual
violence, ill treatment and killing
civilians in occupied territories.
And it was read only by bureaucrats
of Iran or Syria or Council
of Europe.
Oleksandra Matviichuk is a Ukrainian
human rights activist and lawyer
based in Kyiv.
Human Rights Foundation provides
a platform to be heard.
This is not the war of the two
states.
This is a war of two systems
authoritarianism and democracy.
But if the global fight for
individual freedom supersedes
national boundaries, does that
justify the United States providing
material and even military support
to help with conflicts that don't
directly threaten its own citizens?
The speakers voiced different
opinions.
Maybe it's very weird to hear
from the human rights lawyer.
But I will tell, we are very
grateful United States of America
for all support,
especially for weapons.
The isolationist conversation.
Let's not mingle with what's
happening beyond our borders.
Well, I think that's impossible for
the U.S. to do now.
Leopoldo Lopez is a Venezuelan
human rights activists who spent
five years in prison after
organizing massive protests against
the government in 2014.
I don't think the Americans really
have a choice either defend
and promote freedom inside and
outside their borders, or they will
lose freedom inside their country.
Does that mean military force?
Does it mean trade?
Does it mean sanctions?
Does it mean more economic
and cultural engagement?
What does.
It means, it could mean all of the
above.
In Ukraine, it's not just
a battlefield.
It's a front line
of the eternal war between
freedom and tyranny.
Former world chess champion Garry
Kasparov is the chairman of
the Human Rights Foundation.
United States and European powers
graciously offered Mr. Zelensky
and his government an escape
route.
I do not need the right.
I need ammunition.
This is a message that
is heard from every freedom fighter,
every dissident.
No, of course,
we're not always asking for actual
bullets, but for any kind
of support.
People say, Oh, you oppose
dictatorships and you are a neo con.
You oppose dictatorships and you
want to go to war with these
dictatorships. I'm not asking for
boots on the ground. I'm not asking
for an invasion of any country.
The problems of Venezuela should be
solved by Venezuelans.
The problems of Russia should be
solved by Russians.
What we should do is at least
encourage them. I want to encourage
them.
What are you expecting from the West
or from countries or organizations
outside of Iran?
What can they do to further
the cause of freedom in Iran?
To be honest now, we don't expect
the Western
government to come and help
us. We're trying to actually
stop the Western countries to
legitimizing our dictators.
A top Iranian actor has posted
an image of herself on Instagram
without a headscarf.
This to stand in solidarity with the
ongoing anti-hijab protests
against the government.
Compulsory hijab is like the Berlin
Wall.
If men and women get successful
to tear this wall down,
then the religious dictatorship
won't exist.
This cause began to gain
international attention in the fall
of 2022 after a woman named
Mahsa Amini was brutally murdered
for not wearing her hijab properly.
Iranian women responded by bravely
taking to the streets in nationwide
protests, baring their uncovered
heads in open defiance
of the Islamic government.
For 40 years, all the best
and female politicians they
went to my country,
they obeyed Taliban and Islamic Republic.
They cover their hair.
They legitimize my murderer.
I named them Federica
Mogherini, Catherine
Ashton, Segolene Royal.
Shame on you.
We were fighting like lonely
soldier.
You know, with now we are not alone.
When I see that Garry Kasparov
has been fighting for years and
years against Putin, Leopoldo Lopez
has been fighting against Maduro and
many other activists.
It just gives me power that I'm not
alone in this battle.
We're fighting together and together
we are stronger.
But it's an uphill battle convincing
the leaders of Western democracy to
take a harder line against
autocrats.
The Human Rights Foundation produced
a documentary called The Dissident,
which argues that the Saudi crown
prince, Mohammed bin Salman,
is responsible for the brutal murder
of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, an
allegation the prince denies.
In July, President Biden met with
Saudi leaders and his administration
issued a recent court filing,
arguing that bin Salman should be
granted sovereign immunity in a
civil case pertaining to Khashoggi's
murder.
And in Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro
recently shared a handshake with
former secretary of state and
current U.S.
special presidential envoy for
climate John Kerry, and was warmly
greeted by French President Emmanuel
Macron. Despite leading a government
accused of narco-trafficking,
murder, torture, sexual
violence, and crimes against
humanity.
I completely reject the assumption
that we have lost.
Because to me, it's not
a battle that is finished.
The dictatorship is really strong
and we need generations
of determination, of power,
of consistent effort to make
actual change.
The young generation.
They say that we have nothing to
lose. You know, the brutal death
of Mahsa Amini
is becoming a turning point
for for Iranian women.
But at the same time, it is a
tipping point for the Islamic
Republic.
What always occurs.
It occurred in Romania.
It occurred in the Czech Republic.
What always occurs is
there comes a point when the men
holding guns at the people
decide, I'm not going
to do this anymore.