Activist and Hong Lim Park regular Han Hui Hui has been invited to take part in the Human Rights Defenders Word Summit 2018, a human rights conference in Paris.

The event will take place over three days on Oct. 29, 30, and 31.

Han announced the news on her Facebook page on Oct. 23:

In it, Han mentioned that she would be sharing about Singapore's housing, healthcare, and human rights (or supposed lack thereof).

She will also be submitting a report to the Office of United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

If you're interested, you can read her short report here.

Who is behind the Human Rights Defenders World Summit?

The summit is organised by eight international human rights organisations, and funded by the European Union.

This group of eight consists of Amnesty International, Association for Women's Rights in Development, International Federation for Human Rights, Front Line Defenders, International Service for Human Rights, OMCT Network - World Organisation Against Torture, ProtectDefenders.eu, and Reporters Without Borders.

If some of these names seem familiar to you, it's because Singapore has had some brushes with them recently.

Amnesty International, for instance, criticised the Select Committee on Deliberate Online Falsehoods in April for "intimidating" human rights defenders like Han, including her "forced removal" from one of the hearings on March 29.

This was after Han disrupted proceedings by holding up a copy of a book cover in the midst of the hearings and refused to stop, despite being told repeatedly not to carry on with her actions.

Reporters Without Borders had previously branded Singapore as a place with "some of the world’s most repressive legislation as regards the freedom to inform".

Its ranking of Singapore's press freedom is abysmal -- something which former Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong dismissed as "lacking hard data".

The summit is also supported by over 30 worldwide organisations:

The summit features exhibitions and keynote speeches by high level officials and global leaders.

There are also about 150 "human rights defenders" (of which Han is one) who the summit claims are at the "forefront of the struggles for social, political and environmental changes".

According to the summit organisers, this event will be an opportunity for defenders of human rights to "connect, work and debate together and engage with regional and international human rights organisations, global leaders from governments, the United Nations, and the private sector".

The last iteration of the summit was in 1998.

Separately, Han has also been invited to speak at York University in November, specifically on why Singapore needs human rights activists.

She will also be speaking on the same things -- healthcare, housing, and human rights.

While the talk at York University is open to all, the summit is not open to the general public.

[related_story]

Top images from Han Hui Hui's Facebook page

 

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