Please join us virtually for the African Human Rights Leaders Summit, an event that aims to bolster civic voices from the region ahead of the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit.

The event will provide an independent platform to raise and integrate the voices and views of African human rights and civil society leaders, as well as members of African civic groups and the diaspora, ahead of the Summit. It will consider ways to prioritize human rights and democratic governance in U.S. partnerships across the continent, and will aim to feed into the implementation of the broader U.S.-Africa strategy.

Welcome & Keynote

9:00 – 9:15 AM

• Nicole Widdersheim
  Deputy Washington Director, Human Rights Watch
• Honorable Graca Machel
  Founder, Graça Machel Trust

Civil Society as a Democracy Safeguard

9:20 – 10:15 AM

Civil society and human rights leaders discuss the vital importance of addressing democratic backsliding, as well as attacks on basic human rights such as freedom of expression, rising detention, torture and violence on journalists and human rights defenders.

Panelists:

• Maya Sahli-Fadel
  Vice Chair, Africa Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights; Special Rapporteur on Refugees, Asylum Seekers, Internally Displaced Persons and Migrants in Africa
• Hassan Shire
  Executive Director, Defend Defenders
• Donald Deya
  Chief Executive Officer, Pan African Lawyers Union

Moderator:

• Carine Kaneza Nantulya
  Deputy Director for Africa, Human Rights Watch

Weighing in on the U.S. Strategy toward Sub-Saharan Africa

10:25 – 11:20 AM

Civil society and human rights leaders discuss the human rights challenges they are facing and how the new US-Africa strategy can proactively support marginalized populations as well as those on the frontlines working to hold their governments accountable.

Panelists:

• Kamissa Camara
  Senior Advisor for Africa at USIP (Sahel); Former Foreign Minister of Mali
• Achaleke Christian Leke
  AU-Africa Youth Ambassador for Peace; Central Africa and Executive Director, Local Youth Corner Cameroon

Moderator:

• Professor Peter Lewis
  Chair of African Studies, Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS)

Human Rights Promotion & Protection: What Works and What is Needed

11:25 AM – 12:20 PM

Human rights defenders will highlight effective tools and tactics in promoting and protecting human rights and how the US government and US civil society can better support them. They will discuss practical examples of collaborations and successful projects.

Panelists:

• Adama Dempster
  Secretary General, Civil Society Human Rights Advocacy Platform of Liberia; Secretariat for the Establishment of a War Crimes Court in Liberia
• Irene Petras
  Human rights lawyer (Zimbabwe)
• Yasmin Omar
  International human rights lawyer; UN and Regional Advocacy Manager, Committee for Justice; Member, Steering Committee of the U.S. Committee to End Political Repression in Egypt
• Hagir Elsheikh
  Human rights activist (Sudan)

Moderator:

• Kehinde Togun
  Managing Director – Public Engagement, Humanity United

From December 13 to 15, President Joseph R. Biden will host the second U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit in Washington, D.C. Attendees, reportedly including Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, will meet to discuss a wide range of issues, among them a “reinforce[d] commitment to democracy, human rights, and civil society.”

Please join the Project on Middle East Democracy (POMED) and the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy (TIMEP) for a timely discussion on anti-corruption and marginalized communities in Egypt—themes that the Summit’s Civil Society Forum will highlight. An outstanding panel of experts will address the military-backed regime’s pervasive corruption and the government’s record on women’s rights and gender equality, as well as what the United States can do to promote improvements in these areas.

Opening Remarks:

• Tess McEnery
  Executive Director, POMED

Panelists:

• Lobna Darwish
  Gender and Women’s Rights Officer, Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights
• Timothy Kaldas
  Policy Fellow, TIMEP

Moderator:

• Ramy Yaacoub
  Executive Director, TIMEP

Including special remarks from

Rep. Gregory W. Meeks (D-NY)
Chairman, U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee

Lobna Darwish is a feminist and a gender and human rights officer at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, a leading human rights nongovernmental organization that works to strengthen and protect basic rights and freedoms in Egypt, through research, advocacy and supporting litigation in the fields of civil liberties, economic and social rights, and criminal justice. Ms. Darwish works on gender and sexuality, with a focus on criminalization. Follow her on Twitter @lobna.

Timothy E. Kaldas is a Policy Fellow at TIMEP. He researches transitional politics in Egypt, regime survival strategies, and Egyptian political economy and foreign policy. Beyond Egypt, his research examines the social and political history of sectarianism in Iraq, U.S. policy towards the Arab-Israeli conflict, and discrimination against Muslim Europeans, particularly in France. He previously taught politics as a visiting professor at Nile University in Cairo. Mr. Kaldas holds an MA in Arab studies from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. He is currently a doctoral candidate at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, after being based in Cairo for 12 years. Follow him on Twitter @tekaldas.

Tess McEnery is POMED’s Executive Director. Ms. McEnery served two tours as a Director for Democracy and Human Rights at the White House National Security Council. At the State Department, she led a Global Democracy and Human Rights Policy Team and served as a Senior Conflict Prevention Advisor. Previously, Ms. McEnery managed some of the U.S. Agency for International Development’s largest foreign assistance mechanisms and pioneered the agency’s electoral security initiative. Ms. McEnery received her Master of Public Administration from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University and her Bachelor of Arts in political science from Guilford College. Follow her on Twitter @TessMcEnery.

Ramy Yaacoub (moderator) is a founder and the Executive Director of the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy (TIMEP). Mr. Yaacoub is the former Chairman of iProductions and the former CEO of O MENA Media, two companies under the umbrella of O Media Holding. Mr. Yaacoub holds an M.A. in International Affairs with a focus on U.S.-Middle East relations from American University’s School of International Service (SIS) and a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. He previously served as Chief of Staff of the then-parliament-majority Free Egyptians Party in Egypt, and as a Policy Volunteer for the Biden for President campaign Middle East Working Group. Follow him on Twitter @RamyYaacoub.

Photo Credit: Abdel Fattah al-Sisi Facebook page