Geneva, May 23.– The 15th annual Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy was an outstanding success attended by over 700 dissidents, diplomats, journalists, and students from around the world and thousands more who followed along online. 
The Summit presented its 2023 International Women's Rights Award to Shima Babaei, an exiled Iranian women's rights activist and former political prisoner, in tribute to the courageous women and girl protesters of Iran: "The victory is ours. Woman, Life, Freedom."
Leading Nicaraguan opposition politician released this year after being subjected to 611 days in prison and solitary confinement, Félix Maradiaga, received the 2023 Courage Award. He left the audience with a message of hope for Nicaragua and the global movement for freedom: "Together, let us band and banish the darkness of injustice."
Uyghur activist and witness to China's reeducation camps, Kalbinur Sidik provided a chilling account of the systematic terror inflicted on Uyghurs in China: "There’s only one word to describe what’s happening in China: genocide."
Renowned Ukrainian author Andrey Kurkov provided an intimate account of the days following Putin's invasion of Ukraine and its continued impacts on the country's people over one year later: "Millions of Ukrainians were caught between hope and reality in February 2022".
Songmi Han, a North Korean escapee, and survivor of extreme poverty, oppression, and abandonment, recounted the atrocities committed by that regime's brutal cruelty.
Many more speakers addressed the disturbing state of human rights in many countries where abuses are institutionalized as part of the system and proclaimed their wishes for many more people all over the world to join forces, organize, and take action to successfully fight them.