By Coptic Solidarity –
Standard NewsWire – (Washington, DC) June 12, 2023
Coptic Solidarity will host its 11th Annual Conference The Indigenous Copts: Past Denied and Future Unknown in Washington, DC this week. The event is open to the public and media with online registration required. The conference additionally sheds light on the broader situation for minorities throughout the Middle East and North Africa region with guest speakers and survivors from a variety of countries throughout the region, including a recently escaped Sudanese Copt.
The Policy Day will be hosted on June 15th in the US Capitol Visitor Center, Room 201 from 9AM – 5PM and will feature legislators, academics, and policy experts to share their views and recommendations to provide achieve equal citizenship rights for Copts and other minorities in Egypt. On June 16th, the conference will be continued at the Courtyard by Marriott Pentagon South from 9AM – 4PM.
Coptic Solidarity’s president, Mrs. Caroline Doss, states: “While many other conflicts worldwide have absorbed media attention, this is a critical opportunity to shine a light on the systematic oppression and discrimination imposed on Copts by the Egyptian government and society.
Confirmed speakers include:
- Frank Wolf – Commissioner, US Commission on International Religious Freedom
- Mariah Mercer – Deputy Director, Office of International Religious Freedom State Department
- US Representative French Hill – (R- AR)
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- Habib Afram – President of the Syriac League
- Ahed Al Hendi – Regional Director, Heracles Group
- Hayvi Bouzo – Broadcast Journalist, Co-Founder of Yalla P and Host of the Yalla Show
- Nathan J. Brown, Ph.D. -Professor of Political Science and International Affairs, George Washington University and Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
- Ann Buwalda, J.D. – Executive Director, Jubilee Campaign USA
- Robert A. Destro, J.D. – Professor of Law – Columbus School of Law at The Catholic University of America
- Caroline Doss, J.D. – President, Coptic Solidarity
- Mohamed Gohar – Founder of 25TV who hid 17 Copts in his office building during the Maspero Massacre
- Adel Guindy – Founding President of Coptic Solidarity & Author of A Sword Over the Nile: A Brief History of the Copts Under Islamic Rule
- Amy Hawthorne – Deputy Director for Research, Project on Middle East Democracy
- Mariam Ibraheem – Co-Founder & Director of Global Mobilization, Tahrir Alnisa Foundation; Former Sudanese prisoner of conscience
- Raymond Ibrahim – Author, Public Speaker, and Middle East and Islam specialist
- Bashar Jarrar – Political Analyst, Commentator, & Media Consultant
- Jeff King – President, International Christian Concern
- Sherif Mansour – Middle East Program Coordinator, Committee to Protect Journalists
- Paul Marshall, Ph.D. – Senior Fellow Hudson Institute’s Center for Religious Freedom; Wilson Distinguished Professor of Religious Freedom at the Institute for Studies of Religion; Director – Religious Freedom Institute’s South and Southeast Asia Action Team
- Faith McDonnell – Karatismos Global
- Sean Nelson, J.D. – Legal Counsel Global Religious Freedom, ADF International
- Simisola Okai – Activist, TV Producer & Author of I Want to Be a Mommy When I Grow Up: Lessons of Faith and Hope
- Aimar Raheema – Christians Without Home
- Lindsay Rodriguez – Director of Development & Advocacy, Coptic Solidarity
- David Schenker – Director, Program on Arab Politics, The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
- Gregory Stanton, Ph.D. – Founder & President, Genocide Watch
- Raouf Zaki – Writer, Producer, Director at RA Vision Productions, Inc
- Unamed Sudanse Coptic Witness will share first hand testimony and about recent escape to the US
In April, Coptic Solidarity published a new report titled The Coptic Identity: Recognizing the Coptic Indigenous Peoples Status for Protection from State-Sponsored Discrimination, which was presented to the UN Special Rapporteur for the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and to 8 United Nations Country Missions in New York City during the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Rights.
The report explains why Copts qualify and should be recognized as an indigenous minority and contends that Egypt’s Copts merit additional protection for their persons, and for cultural, linguistic, and historical protection beneath a variety of United Nations Charters and Agreements. The 11th Annual Conference will be a continued exploration of that theme and seeking possible solutions.
Coptic Solidarity is an organization seeking to help minorities, particularly the Copts of Egypt. We support those in Egypt working for democracy, freedom, and the protection of the fundamental rights of all Egyptian citizens, and advocate in cooperation with the affiliated organizations in Canada and in Europe (Solidarité Copte). For more information, contact Lindsay Rodriguez at 801-512-1713 or coptadvocacy@copticsolidarity.org
