Pari Ibrahim is the founder and Executive Director of the Free Yezidi Foundation (FYF). Born in Iraq and of Yezidi descent, Pari fled the country as a child with her family in 199, eventually settling in the Netherlands. In response to the Yezidi Genocide committed by ISIS in Sinjar, Northern Iraq in August 2014, Pari established FYF to support the Yezidi community and raise awareness of the plight of survivors. FYF operates in Duhok, Kurdistan Region of Iraq, with headquarters in the United States and the Netherlands. Pari is a staunch advocate for the empowerment and equal rights of women and girls, including within the Yezidi community and has delivered speeches at institutions around the world, including at the UN Security Council, UK Parliament, US Holocaust Museum, BBC, Al-Jazeera, and at universities and think-tanks. Pari has published pieces in several media outlets, including the Washington Post and the Guardian and holds a law degree from the University of Amsterdam. ...

Wai Wai Nu is a human rights defender. Nu is a former political prisoner having been imprisoned at 18 with her family for being the daughter of a political activist who opposed the ruling government in Myanmar, and a Rohingya. Nu co-founded Justice for Women in Yangon, a network of female lawyers providing legal and educational assistance to victims of gender-based violence. Nu is also the Founder and Executive Director of the Women's Peace Network and Founder of the Yangon Youth Leadership Centre. Nu has been recognized as a “Champion of Prevention” by the UN Office on the Prevention of Genocide and Responsibility to Protect and has received numerous prestigious awards and distinctions for her human rights, peacebuilding, and gender equality work. In 2014, Nu received the N-Peace Award and was among the BBC’s Top 100 Women; in 2015, she was named one of the Top 100 Global Thinkers by Foreign Policy Magazine; in 2016, she was named one of Salt and Diageo's 100 Inspiring Women by Salt Magazine; In 2017, she was named one of the Next Generation Leaders by Time magazine; In 2018, she received the Hillary Clinton Award from Georgetown University and was Financial Times Women of the Year ; In 2019, she was selected as an Obama Foundation Scholar at Columbia University; in 2020 she was selected as a Genocide Prevention Fellow by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and one of the 16 Women Fighting for Fairness in Asia by Tatler magazine; and in 2021, she received the City of Athens Democracy Award from The Democracy and Culture Foundation. Nu received her bachelor’s degree in law from the University of Yangon, Myanmar and her master’s degree in law from the University of Berkeley. She previously served as a visiting scholar with the Human Rights Centre at the University of Berkeley. ...

Dr Jo Smith Finley joined Newcastle University in 2000 where she is Reader in Chinese Studies. Her research interests have included the evolution of identities among the Uyghurs of Xinjiang, NW China, and in the Uyghur diaspora; strategies of symbolic resistance in Xinjiang; Uyghur women between Islamic revival and Chinese state securitization of religion; PRC counter-terrorism measures in Xinjiang as state terror; and political “re-education” in Xinjiang as (cultural) genocide. Dr Finley is the author of several publications, including ‘Why Scholars and Activists Increasingly Fear a Uyghur Genocide in Xinjiang’ in the Journal of Genocide Research; The Art of Symbolic Resistance: Uyghur Identities and Uyghur-Han Relations in Contemporary Xinjiang and ‘Securitization, Insecurity and Conflict in Contemporary Xinjiang: Has PRC Counter-Terrorism Evolved into State Terror?’ in the Central Asian Survey, and co-editor of ‘Language, Education and Uyghur Identity in Urban Xinjiang and Situating the Uyghurs Between China and Central Asia’. Jo additionally writes op-eds for international media based on her three decades of expertise in Uyghur studies and gives frequent interviews to investigative journalists, documentary filmmakers, and radio and television broadcasters. She serves as an expert country witness in Uyghur asylum cases in the UK, Europe, the US and Canada, and advises legal firms, refugee support organizations, government departments, non-governmental organizations and think tanks. ...

Sophie Richardson is an activist and scholar of Chinese politics, human rights, and foreign policy. She received her doctorate from the University of Virginia, a certificate from the Hopkins-Nanjing Program, and her BA from Oberlin College. From 2006 to 2023, Dr. Richardson served as the China Director at Human Rights Watch. She has published extensively on human rights, and testified to the Canadian Parliament, European Parliament, and the United States Senate and House of Representatives. Dr. Richardson is the Co-Executive Director of CHRD, a coalition of Chinese and international human rights non-governmental organisations dedicated to the promotion of human rights through peaceful efforts to push for democratic and rule of law reforms and to strengthen grassroots activism in China. In 2024 she was a Visiting Scholar at the Centre for Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law at the Freeman Spogli Institute at Stanford University, where she researched the efforts of democracies to promote and protect human rights under repressive Chinese governments and the growing threats of repressive Chinese governments to human rights in democracies. Dr. Richardson is also advising several China-focused human rights organizations. ...