Speakers panel 
Frances Hui
Policy & Advocacy Coordinator, Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation; Director, We The Hongkongers

Frances Hui is the first political activist from Hong Kong to receive asylum in the US following the adoption of the National Security Law in 2020. At the early age of 14, Hui started her involvement in Hong Kong's social movements. She was a former standing committee member of Scholarism, a Hong Kong pro-Democracy student group known for defending the city’s education policy from Beijing's influence and leading the 2014 Umbrella Movement. As a 15-year-old, she volunteered for the media on civil society and protest coverage where she constantly faced police use of violence. Her column "I am from Hong Kong, not China" in April 2019 was a widespread piece across the globe that discuss the foundation of the Hongkonger identity. Currently based in the US, Hui continues her advocacy in Washington at the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation as the Policy and Advocacy Coordinator which advocates for Hong Kong on the international agenda. She also heads the organization, We The Hongkongers, dedicated to promoting and strengthening the culture and identity of Hongkongers abroad.
Judge Kevin Sharp is Co-Vice Chairman of Sanford Heisler Sharp and Co-Chair of the firm’s Public Interest Litigation Group. Prior to joining the firm, Judge Sharp was nominated to the federal bench by President Barack Obama, confirmed unanimously by the Senate, and received his commission as a federal district court judge on May 3, 2011. Judge Sharp served on the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee from May 2011 to April 2017, including service from 2014 to 2017 as the court’s Chief Judge. Since serving on the federal bench, Judge Sharp has been involved in several projects related to criminal justice reform.

In 2021, he helped secure Executive Clemency for Chris Young, a young man who Judge Sharp was required to sentence to life in prison due to draconian mandatory minimum sentencing laws. In 2019 and 2020, Kevin also represented Tennessee death row inmate Nick Sutton’s request to the Governor to commute his death sentence to life in prison without parole. He is an Advisory Board member to the Tennessee Innocence Project and the Nashville, Tennessee Chapter of the American Constitution Society. 
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Judge Sharp is currently representing Leonard Peltier in his petition for Executive Clemency. Peltier is a 78-year-old Native American civil rights leader and activist who was wrongfully convicted for his alleged role in the death of two FBI agents.
Elise Auerbach is the Amnesty International USA Country Specialist for Iran and coordinates the work done by the US section on Iran. She has been a country specialist in the AIUSA Middle East Coordination Group since 1995. She received her Ph.D. from the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at the University of Chicago. Elise also works closely with other country specialists on the AIUSA Refugee Casework Committee to provide support to asylum seekers and others seeking relief.
Tenzin Myinlek is the Grassroots Director for Students for a Free Tibet. During Tenzin Myinlek’s undergraduate studies at the University of Connecticut, she served as the president of the UConn Tibetan Interest Association. In February of 2022, Myinlek joined the Students for a Free Tibet (SFT) staff as the North America Grassroots Coordinator.

Myinlek has played a central role in organizing the SFT East Coast Conference hosted at Harvard University in 2022, North America Longsho Tour 2022, as well as the Tibet Climate Crisis regional talk tour in Oregon and California in February 2023.

Under Myinlek’s leadership, SFT’s North America grassroots network of chapters and student activists has grown and thrived. Recently, Myinlek was promoted to serve as SFT’s International Grassroots Director, expanding her effective grassroots leadership on a global scale.

In her free time, Myinlek finds peace and restoration in playing the trumpet and cranking Taylor Swift classics on repeat.
Leeladevi Ananthanadarajah, also known as Mrs. Leela Ananthan, was an Assistant Labor Commissioner in the government of Sri Lanka, before retiring from government service in 2013.

At the end of the Sri Lankan civil war in May 2009, her son was apprehended by the Sri Lankan armed forces while he was waiting at the Omanthai check post for transportation after completing his verification formalities. Her son is one amongst thousands of Tamils who voluntarily entrusted themselves to the Sri Lankan armed forces for processing at the end of the war. To date, his whereabouts remain unknown.

​Mrs. Ananthan has been shunted from pillar to post from several army camps to relevant Sri Lankan government authorities looking for her son, all to no avail thus far. She has relentlessly participated in the protests and continuous vigils and fasts organized by the Tamil Mothers of the Disappeared looking for their children. Mrs. Ananthan currently is the Secretary of the Association for Relatives of Enforced Disappearances in the North and East, and has made several statements at United Nations Human Rights Council meetings in Geneva, Switzerland.