[Notes below by Tom Gross]

I moderated panels again this year at the Geneva Summit for Human Rights (an important event put together by UN Watch and 19 other smaller human rights groups critical of the UN and of major organizations such as Amnesty International and HRW, for not doing their job properly).

Below are five of the videos from the summit.

“I WAS HELD CAPTIVE BY ISIS”

My interview with Pierre Torres, one of the French hostages who were held captive by ISIS in Syria for ten months with the American and British hostages who were then beheaded. This is his first interview outside France. He reveals what it was like for fellow hostages James Foley, Steven Sotloff and the others in captivity.

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(Update: This video has also now been picked up by the (London) Daily Mail in a shorter version, and other media in the full-length version.

There is also an article in the Daily Mail based on the above video and further interviews with Pierre Torres, here.)

ESCAPE FROM BOKO HARAM

Tom Gross interviews one of the few Nigerian schoolgirls who escaped from Boko Haram.

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ONE THOUSAND LASHES FOR BEING HUMAN FROM “OUR” SAUDI ALLIES

The wife of imprisoned Saudi blogger Raif Badawi, who was sentenced to 1000 lashes for calling for freedom of speech, accepts the 2015 Geneva Summit Courage Award on behalf of her husband. She made this passionate appeal to the summit by video link from exile in Canada.

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* See also: “Je suis Raif Badawi”

DOES THE COUNTER-REVOLUTION START BY SHOWING ONE’S HAIR?

Masih Alinejad is an exiled Iranian journalist who launched a Facebook campaign for Iranian women to post photos of themselves after briefly removing their headscarves, in defiance of Iranian law. Here is a clip of the women in Iran removing headscarves, followed by a passionate speech as she accepts the Geneva Summit 2015 Women’s Rights Award.

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* See also item 3 here: Happy in Gaza (& arrested for being happy in Tehran) (& Disabled Saudi tweet)

THE FORGOTTEN HELL THAT IS NORTH KOREA

Yeon-Mi Park is an amazing 21-year-old North Korean defector. (She told me that she only learned English in the last few months – mainly from watching re-runs of the TV comedy “Friends” during her exile last year in South Korea. “So Joey and Phoebe taught you English?” I asked her at dinner that evening. “No, Ross and Rachel,” she replied.)

PRICELESS

One more item. This is not from the Geneva Summit.

This video, released by ISIS yesterday, shows their members using power drills and sledgehammers to smash to pieces priceless 3,000-year-old artworks as they destroy Mosul museum. It is enough to make one cry.

It comes a day after they destroyed thousands of books and irreplaceable pre-Islamic manuscripts at Mosul Public Library.

YouTube have now removed it, so there are some clips from the video here and here.

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