Hello and welcome to our fourth annual Human Rights Day event here at the National Press Club.

My name is Jeffrey Imm, and I am the founder of the volunteer human rights group, Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.). Our objective is to promote consistency in universal human rights and human dignity for all of our brothers and sisters in humanity without exception. Our mission to focus on promoting the shared universal human rights and human dignity that we all have simply as being human beings, and work for the cause of equality and liberty for all. We offer forward-facing solutions to make change in our world with compassion and an outstretched hand of hope to our fellow human beings.

The groups joining us in promoting this Human Rights Day event share this vision. We are joined today by people whose groups represent major areas of human rights challenges in the United States of America and around the world. All of us seek consistency in such human rights and dignity. I am proud to have such courageous and committed leaders in human rights with us to help us commemorate Human Rights Day.

We are joined by
— Global Service Center for Quitting the Chinese Communist Party – Dr. Charles Lee, who will be addressing the human rights atrocities against the Falun Gong in China and the courage to believe
— Darfur Women Action Group (DWAG) – Niemat Ahmadi on human rights abuses against Darfuri and Sudanese people
— Pakistan Christian Congress/Post – Dr. Nazir Bhatti on human rights abuses against Pakistan Christians and minorities
— United for Equality (U4E) – Equal Rights Amendment (E.R.A.) and Women’s Rights Activist Carolyn Cook
— Ahmar Mustikhan, Senior Balochistan Journalist and Human Rights Defender
— The International Committee To Support The Non-Violent Movement For Human Rights in Vietnam – Acting Vice Chairman, Mrs. Nathalie Nguyen, who will address “Raising Awareness of Human Rights Violations in Vietnam & Territorial Expansion Policy By The Chinese Communist Party.”

We thank each of the speakers and organizations that join us.

I want to be clear that we very much realize that these areas are not the only areas of human rights crises around the world today. We seek to present a diverse discussion of human rights issues, but we know there are other specific topics that will not be directly addressed. Our goal is something larger than any one individual issue, and that is to demonstrate that all of these issues share the same common root – a need to be consistent on our universal human rights and human dignity, and a need for our human society to be responsible for equality and liberty for all people.

Each of these speakers will come up one at a time. We will offer an opportunity for immediate questions after each speaker, if it does not go too long, otherwise we will need to any long questions to the end of the event. We are also especially honored to have a documentary that we will be showing here at 2 PM, “Free China: The Courage to Believe.” The “Free China” document examines the widespread human rights violations in China against the Chinese people and against Falun Gong practitioners, a type of Taoist and Buddhist meditation practice. We are honored to have those individuals behind this documentary also joining us today, including Director Michael Pearlman and one of the individuals in the film, Dr. Charles Lee who will also be speaking today.

We honor Human Rights Day today to commemorate the passage of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) by the United Nations General Assembly on December 10, 1948.

Before I begin with the other esteemed speakers, I have a few comments of my own.