Speakers Panel

Speakers

2019 speakers will be announced soon.

2018 speakers are listed below:

Margaret Huang, an advocate for human rights and racial justice for more than two decades, is the Executive Director of Amnesty International USA.

As the chief executive officer, Ms. Huang is responsible for advancing the vision and mission of the organization, managing the organization’s day-to-day operations and activities, serving as the lead spokesperson for the organization, and ensuring the organization’s financial health. She has worked with Members of Congress on critical pieces of legislation, and she has advocated before the United Nations human rights mechanisms as well as the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. She has published articles and opinion pieces on human rights, and she authored a chapter, “Going Global – Appeals to International and Regional Human Rights Bodies,” in Human Rights At Home, published by Praeger Publishers in December 2007. Ms. Huang’s opinion pieces have been published in Time, The Washington Post, Newsweek, U.S. News and World Report, Rolling Stone, the Miami Herald, and numerous other leading outlets, and she has been interviewed on National Public Radio, CNN, NBC News, Al Jazeera, and other global and domestic media. She regularly speaks on human rights issues to national and international associations, universities, and conferences.

Ms. Huang previously served as Chief of Staff and as Deputy Executive Director for Campaigns and Programs at Amnesty International USA. Earlier in her career, she served as Executive Director of the Rights Working Group, a coalition of civil liberties and human rights groups formed in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, attacks. Previously, she served as Director of the U.S. Program at Global Rights, Program Director of the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Human Rights, and Program Manager at The Asia Foundation. Earlier in her career, she served as Committee Staff for the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Ms. Huang received a Master of International Affairs from Columbia University, and a B.S.F.S. from Georgetown University.

Burma: Nadira Khudayberdieva is a Program Manager at the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect, where she leads the Global Centre's work on the Global Network of R2P Focal Points – a network of senior government officials appointed to promote R2P and mass atrocity prevention at national, regional and international levels. Nadira also conducts research and advocacy at the United Nations on populations at risk of mass atrocities, with the current focus on the situations in Myanmar (Burma), Nigeria and Democratic People's Republic of Korea. In addition, Nadira is involved in other projects of the Global Centre, including R2P and Protection of Cultural Heritage. Nadira holds an MSc in Global Governance and Diplomacy from the University of Oxford, and a B.A. in International Studies from Earlham College. Previously, she worked at the Quaker United Nations Office. Nadira is fluent in English and Russian and has a working knowledge of Spanish

Tibet/China: Dorjee Tseten is the Executive Director of Students for a Free Tibet International. Dorjee was born in a Tibetan refugee settlement in India. He graduated from MS University in Gujarat with a Bachelors in Economics and Post Graduate Diploma in Human Rights Studies and developed his skills as a trainer at the Tibetan Center for Conflict Resolution. He joined SFT in 2010 and served as SFT India’s National Director for four years before joining SFT international team. A keen strategist and media spokesperson, Dorjee has trained hundreds of Tibetan and Indian students through SFT’s Youth Leadership Training program. Dorjee is also the steering committee member of International Tibet Network. In 2016, Dorjee was elected as a Member of the Tibetan Parliament in Exile.

Iran: Mani Mostofi is an independent lawyer, international law expert, and human rights advocate of Iranian decent.

Mostofi's work has touched on dozens pressing human rights matters in Iran including Internet freedom, LGBT rights, minority rights, political prisoners, and freedom of religion. He has addressed issues such as the abuse of migrant workers in Bahrain, domestic violence in New Zealand, refugees in Turkey, and torture policies in Malawi.

Mostofi was the founder and director of Impact Iran, a human rights coalition focusing primarily on advocacy with the United Nations system. Before Impact Iran, Mostofi served as Communications Director and Senior Researcher at Human Rights in Iran Unit where he advised and assisted the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Iran on communications strategies and documentation for UN reports. Mostofi has also been a researcher at Human Rights Watch and the Center for Human Rights in Iran.

Mostofi has a Master’s degree in Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Texas, Austin, and a Juris Doctorate from Fordham University School of Law.

Sri Lanka: Anji Manivannan is a human rights lawyer with expertise in atrocity crimes, transitional justice, gender, and freedom of expression. Since 2009, she has supported People for Equality and Relief in Lanka (PEARL) and other Tamil diaspora organizations in their work to end impunity in Sri Lanka. She has field experience in India, Palestine, and West Africa and has advocacy experience at the international, regional, and national levels. Anji holds a B.S. in Physics from the University of Virginia and a J.D. from New York University (NYU) School of Law.

Sudan: Denise C. Bell is a researcher at Amnesty International USA and develops refugee and asylum seeker cases for the I Welcome campaign. Previous to this role, she led implementation of Amnesty’s campaign on the rights of refugees and asylum seekers. She came to AIUSA from the U.S. Department of Justice, where she was an Attorney Advisor on the New York Immigration Court. She has worked in various capacities on forced displacement issues since the mid-1990s. She was previously a Sudan Country Specialist for AIUSA and the campaigner for its
Darfur campaign.

United States: Carol Anne Donohoe is an attorney specializing in immigration law including asylum and removal defense in federal immigration court, family based immigration, and specialized protections for victims of crime, domestic violence, trafficking, and for unaccompanied juveniles. She and several other volunteer attorneys created the nonprofit Aldea – The People’s Justice Center, which provides pro bono or discounted legal representation in Pennsylvania areas. They represent many of the families detained at Berks County Residential Center, which include individuals that Amnesty has campaigned on, such as the four families released last August and an indigenous family last month.