 If we, freedom fighters, do not get united to end dictatorship, dictators will get united to end us and democracy. On October 3, 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 Halverson is the organization's founder and CEO. The United Nations is a massive club for dictators. The rich, powerful and corrupt get together in doubles. Well, some of the world's bravest people get together at the Oslo Freedom Forum. They then start trading ideas. 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, subdued process, freedom from torture. Reasons 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 filet show 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 state borders. 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 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're used to your entire life is 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 the 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's so many people and the elites of these countries who are in business with China. Yes, I think we would absolutely be able to unplug China. 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 to people outside it. For eight years, they haven't heard us. We sent millions of reports about tortures, sexual violence, ill treatment and killing civilians in occupied territories. And it was read only by bureaucrats of UN or OECU or Council of Europe. Alexandra Matvachok is a Ukrainian human rights activist and lawyer based in Kiev. 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 activist 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. They 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? I think it could mean all of the above. In Ukraine, it's not just a battlefield. It's a frontline of the eternal war between freedom and tyranny. Former world chess champion Gary 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. Now, 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 neocon. 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 Masa Amani was brutally murdered for not wearing her hijab properly. Iranian women responded by bravely taking to the streets in nationwide protests, bearing their uncovered heads in open defiance of the Islamic government. We were fighting like lonely soldiers, you know? But now we are not alone. When I see that Gary Kasparov has been fighting for years and years against Putin, Lopoldo 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 in 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, Nicholas Maduro recently shared a handshake with former Secretary of State and current US 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 Mahsau Amini is becoming a turning point 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.