Episode 29: “Women Leading the Way on FoRB” Season – A Conversation with Ewelina Ochab Feb 04, 2025

It’s appropriate that we’re releasing the first episode of this season this week, during the fifth annual International Religious Freedom Summit. It’s an incredible gathering of civil society advocates, activists, experts, academics, government leaders, parliamentarians, and more from across the globe – all focused on advancing the fundamental right to freedom of religion, conscience, or belief.

Research shows that when countries protect and advance religious freedom, they tend to be more peaceful, stable, and prosperous. On the flip side, when governments trample on religious freedom, they are almost certain to violate other human rights, as well. With authoritarianism rising around the world, religious freedom is at ever greater risk.

But…there is always hope for a better future. For me, much of that hope is inspired by the amazing women who are leading the movement for greater freedom of religion or belief – or FoRB, as it’s sometimes called in shorthand. These women hail from different backgrounds, different cultures, different faiths, and different perspectives. Yet, they all share an uncommon drive for justice and an unwavering dedication to the conscience rights of all.

We’re kicking off our series of conversations with the women leading the way on FoRB with one of the most brilliant and respected minds in the world of international religious freedom: Dr. Ewelina Ochab. A human rights lawyer, a researcher, an author, an advocate – Ewelina truly does it all. Based in London, but usually traveling to far flung corners of the globe, Ewelina is a programme lawyer with the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute, as well as co-founder of the Coalition for Genocide Response. She has studied and written about some of the most egregious cases of religious persecution in the past decades, as well as about genocide prevention and response. It was an honor to speak with her about what inspired her to focus on human rights and persecuted religious minorities, the places in the world that worry her most, and what keeps her motivated to do this work.

International Religious Freedom (IRF) Summit

Dr. Ewelina Ochab

International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute

Dr. Ewelina Ochab on Forbes

Follow Dr. Ewelina Ochab on X

Producers: Brittany Smith, Chelsea Hedquist & Celie Hudson

Audio editors: Brittany Smith & Celie Hudon

Music: Always Hopeful - Silent Partner • Always Hopeful – Silent Partner (No C...

“Women Leading the Way on Freedom of Religion or Belief” Season Trailer Jan 27, 2025

Coming Soon: “Women Leading the Way on Freedom of Religion or Belief”

Freedom of religion, conscience and belief is a fundamental human right – it’s foundational to so many other rights that form the basis of peaceful, prosperous and free societies. But it is too often overlooked and increasingly under threat around the world. A growing global movement is now shining a spotlight on this human right. Among a diverse coalition of advocates, activists, government leaders, faith leaders, academic experts, civil society groups, and survivors of religious persecution, women are often leading the way. The new season of The Keeper podcast will feature conversations with some of the most compelling and impactful women in the international religious freedom community. These women are setting the tone and pace for a movement that empowers people of all faiths – or none – to advocate on behalf of each other. From moving personal stories to the most concerning situations globally, to lessons learned and priorities for advancing religious freedom everywhere, you won’t want to miss what these remarkable women have to say. Subscribe to The Keeper to make sure you don’t miss a single episode.
Music track: Heroes by Sunova
Source: https://freetouse.com/music
No Copyright Music (Free Download)

Episode 28: Sports & Rights Season – A Conversation with Enes Kanter Freedom Dec 20, 2024

This will be the fifth and final episode of our Sports & Rights season. Over the course of this series, we've taken an in-depth look at what happens when the worlds of sports and human rights collide. We've brought you conversations with Olympians, activists, journalists, academics, and fans. We've tried to unpack some of the stickiest questions around the intersection of sports and human rights.

This podcast season started just as the FIFA World Cup kicked off in Qatar, and perhaps appropriately it ended just as FIFA announced that Saudia Arabia will host the 2034 World Cup. If this tells us anything, it is that the questions we've been grappling with about sports and human rights aren't going away anytime soon.

But, to end the season on a more hopeful and uplifting note, we're bringing you a wonderful conversation "from the vault" – a Q&A with Enes Kanter Freedom, NBA player turned human rights activist. This conversation took place before a live audience at the 2022 Lantos Human Rights Prize ceremony in Washington, DC, when Kanter Freedom was awarded the Prize. He was interviewed by Lantos Foundation President Dr. Katrina Lantos Swett.
We hope you enjoy this conversation with an athlete who gave up everything to stand up for human rights.
Highlights from the 2022 Lantos Human Rights Prize ceremony

Producers: Chelsea Hedquist, Brittany Smith

Audio editor: Brittany Smith

Music: Riorr by Audiorezout

Episode 27: Sports & Rights Season – Who Can Hold the Sports World Accountable? Dec 13, 2024

Episode Notes

In the last episode of our Sports & Rights season, we dove into the subject of sportswashing and the nefarious use of sports as soft power. At the end of that episode, we posed a few questions: Who plays a role in ensuring that sports aren’t just about profits over power? Who can guarantee that human rights get their due in these huge, lucrative businesses? In this episode, we try to answer those questions by talking to athletes, activists, and experts in sports ethics. We also touch on recent events, such as FIFA accepting Saudia Arabia’s bid for the 2034 World Cup, which underscore just how important the topic of sports and human rights continues to be.

We’ll be back soon with our final episode of this season!

A History of Sports and Dictators (by Karim Zidan, via Human Rights Foundation)
How the NBA got into business with an African dictator (by Mark Fainaru-Wada, via ESPN)

It is time to change how we talk about Saudi sports (by Karim Zidan, via Sports Politika)

Sport & Rights Alliance
Watch:
Sports & Politics | The Struggle for Freedom, Explained (via Human Rights Foundation)

Producers: Chelsea Hedquist, Brittany Smith

Audio editor: Brittany Smith

Music: Riorr by Audiorezout

Episode 25: Sports & Rights Season – Why the First Female Afghan Olympian Wants the Olympics to Ban Her Country Jul 10, 2024

When we first kicked off our Sports & Rights podcast season, we were in the midst of what is arguably the biggest and most beloved sporting event on the planet – the 2022 FIFA World Cup, held in Qatar. Now, we find ourselves just weeks away from the Opening Ceremony of the 2024 Paris Olympics – the perfect time to restart our examination of the intersection of human rights and sports!
In the coming episodes, we will circle back to some of the ideas we raised in our first episode of the season. We’ll talk about sportswashing, athlete activism, the role of sports organizations in upholding and strengthening human rights. But first, we’re going to bring you something a little different and very timely: the story and struggle of a woman named Friba Rezayee.
Just last month, the Lantos Foundation had the privilege of meeting Friba at the Oslo Freedom Forum. Friba has the distinction of being Afghanistan’s first female Olympic athlete, having represented her country in the sport of judo at the 2004 Athens Olympics, just a few short years after the U.S. and its allies toppled the brutal and repressive Taliban regime. Now that the Taliban has regained power, girls and women are once again forbidden from participating in sports.
The International Olympic Committee has agreed to allow a mixed-gender team from Afghanistan compete in Paris – part of its push for the first ever “gender parity Olympics.” But Friba says this move only legitimizes the Taliban regime and uses Afghan female athletes in exile as window dressing for the Games.
Friba has started a petition calling on the IOC to ban Afghanistan from the 2024 Games. Sign it here.
Learn more about her organization: Women Leaders of Tomorrow

Read more:
Afghanistan’s First Female Olympian Calls for Games Ban, Reuters, March 21, 2024
Women Afghan athletes differ on whether Olympic ban will help their cause, CBC, April 15, 2024

The Taliban and the Global Backlash Against Women’s Rights, Human Rights Watch, February 6, 2024
Opinion | The Olympics Should Stand With Afghanistan’s Women Athletes - The New York Times (nytimes.com), July 17, 2024
Watch:
Sports & Politics | The Struggle for Freedom, Explained (via Human Rights Foundation)

Producers: Chelsea Hedquist, Brittany Smith
Audio editor: Brittany Smith
Music: Riorr by Audiorezout

Episode 24: Special re-release of “Vladimir Kara-Murza: The Democracy Activist Putin Wants Dead” Apr 11, 2024

On April 11, 2024, we are re-releasing our 2021 episode “The Democracy Activist Putin Wants Dead.” There is a very somber reason for this re-release. This date marks the two-year anniversary of Vladimir Kara-Murza’s arrest and imprisonment on charges of “public dissemination of deliberately false information.” Vladimir, one of the boldest and most eloquent Russian opposition figures, committed the great “crime” of speaking out against Russian president Vladimir Putin’s war of aggression on Ukraine. For speaking the truth, he is now serving a 25-year sentence in a remote and notoriously harsh penal colony. Vladimir’s health, already compromised by two nearly fatal poisonings ordered by the Kremlin, is declining. Time is running out. It is imperative for people everywhere to keep advocating for Vladimir’s release, to keep demanding that western governments intervene, to keep reminding the Putin regime that there is a cost to making dissidents into political prisoners. If we hope to hear Vladimir’s voice again one day, speaking out boldly for democracy and human rights in Russia, then we must speak boldly now in calling for his release.

This re-release features a condensed version of the episode created from two conversations that Lantos Foundation President Dr. Katrina Lantos Swett had with Vladimir in late 2020 and early 2021.

Read Vladimir Kara-Murza’s opinion pieces in The Washington Post

Vladimir Kara-Murza’s last statement to Moscow City Court

Write Vladimir a letter

The Price of Conviction podcast (produced by the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights)

Russian dissident Kara-Murza moved to isolation cell in new Siberian prison (Reuters, Jan. 30, 2024)

Episode 23: Sports & Rights Season: Joint episode with World Affairs Council of New Hampshire Nov 23, 2022

The Keeper’s new Sports & Rights season kicks off with something a little different – a joint episode hosted by Dr. Katrina Lantos Swett and Tim Horgan, Executive Director of the World Affairs Council of New Hampshire and host of the Global in the Granite State podcast. Katrina and Tim join forces for a dynamic conversation about the complex and often problematic ways in which the world of sports intersects and interacts with human rights issues. They cover everything from sportswashing (ancient and modern!) – including the two biggest sporting events of 2022, the Beijing Winter Olympics and the World Cup in Qatar – to the responsibility of sports federations to promote and uphold human rights, to the powerful role that athletes can play as advocates for human rights and other social issues. The episode introduces many of the topics that the Sports & Rights season will dive into more fully, with a special focus on how they play out close to home in the Granite State.

Global in the Granite State Podcast

“Could 2022 be sportswashing’s biggest year yet?”, The Guardian, January 5, 2022, by Karim Zidan

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Congressman Tom Lantos on China’s 2008 Olympic bid, C-Span, July 11, 2001

Sport & Rights Alliance

UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights

Center for Sport Leadership, Virginia Commonwealth University

Producers: Chelsea Hedquist, Brittany Smith

Audio technician: Chelsea Hedquist

Audio editors: Brittany Smith, Trent Gunst

Music: Riorr by Audiorezout

Episode 22: Pavel Khodorkovsky Apr 20, 2022

Over the past several weeks, we have watched Russia’s unprovoked attacks on the people of Ukraine with horror, outrage, and a deep sense of fear for what this will mean for freedom and democracy in Europe – and the world. We have sought out trusted experts on the situation to help us better understand what the future may hold, for both Ukraine and Russia. In this special episode of The Keeper, we share a conversation between Lantos Foundation President Katrina Lantos Swett and Pavel Khodorkovsky. Pavel is the son of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, formerly Putin’s most prominent political prisoner and now one of his most vocal critics. Pavel is the U.S. Executive Director of Project Sunrise, an initiative to deliver humanitarian aid directly to Ukraine. In this interview, he shares his unique and hard-earned insights into the conflict in Ukraine and what is happening inside Russia.

Project Sunrise

Russian Anti-War Committee

Washington Post Live: The Future of Russia – The Oligarchs with Pavel Khodorkovsky

CNN: He was Russia’s Richest Man. Hear what he has to say about Putin.

The Guardian: History demands the west deploy every legal and financial weapon against Putin

The Economist: Mikhail Khodorkovsky on how to deal with the “bandit” in the Kremlin

Vanity Fair: “The Oligarchs Are Financial Outposts in His War”: Why the West Must Ramp Up Its Campaign Against Putin’s Billionaires

The Atlantic Council: Peace in Europe ‘will not exist’ as long as Putin is in power, says Mikhail Khodorkovsky

Episode 21: Rule of Law Season Finale – 2020 Lantos Prize Laureate Bryan Stevenson on Justice Jun 23, 2021

On the final episode of our 7-part Rule of Law season, we return to the subject of the state of the rule of law right here in America. We hear from our 2020 Lantos Human Rights Prize Laureate Bryan Stevenson, who has been a tireless advocate for applying the rule of law equally and fairly in the United States, regardless of race or economic status, as well as for dealing more honestly and openly with this country’s history of inequality. Stevenson, the founder of the Equal Justice Initiative and author of the best-selling book Just Mercy, has spent more than three decades advocating on behalf of incarcerated people who have been wrongly convicted or unfairly sentenced. In this episode, we hear his perspective on the difference between law and justice, how America compromises its standing as a human rights leader when it fails to confront its own human rights challenges, why mercy is as fundamental a principle as justice, and more. Listen to this powerful and inspiring conclusion to the Rule of Law season.

Equal Justice Initiative

Just Mercy (best-selling book adapted into a film)

2020 Lantos Human Rights Prize Recipient

Bryan Stevenson: From the courtroom to Hollywood (BookTube)

The Moment to Close America’s Hypocrisy Gap, by Katrina Lantos Swett (Medium)
This season of The Keeper is made possible with the generous support of Ambassador April H. Foley, the United States Ambassador to Hungary from 2006-2009.

This episode of The Keeper is proudly brought to you by Shaheen & Gordon – providing full-service legal advocacy across New Hampshire & Maine since 1981. Shaheen & Gordon is dedicated to protecting people’s rights and upholding the Rule of Law.

This final episode of our Rule of Law season is also supported by John & Patricia Broderick.

Episode 20: Rule of Law Season – Seeking Justice on an International Stage Apr 23, 2021

On this season of The Keeper, we’ve heard harrowing first-hand accounts of what happens in a country when its government or leaders choose to disregard the rule of law; freedom, justice and human rights all tend to be casualties. Oftentimes, the oppressors and abusers face few consequences for their actions…but not always. When it comes to the worst of the worst crimes, there is an international instrument for accountability – the International Criminal Court, or the ICC. It is the first and only permanent international court with the legal jurisdiction to prosecute genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and the crime of aggression. In this episode, we speak with Judge Chile Eboe-Osuji, who recently finished his term as ICC President after serving on the Court for nearly a decade. We cover the origins of the ICC, its complicated and often fraught relationship with the U.S., criticisms of the Court and points of deep controversy over which countries it chooses to investigate – or not investigate – but also Judge Eboe-Osuji’s fundamental belief in the Court’s power to “loosen the grip of tyranny in our time”.

International Criminal Court

Farewell Message of ICC President Chile Eboe-Osuji

Third Annual Lantos Rule of Law Lecture with Judge President Eboe-Osuji

I.C.C. Won’t Investigate China’s Detention of Muslims (New York Times)

The United States Opposes the ICC Investigation into the Palestinian Situation

This season of The Keeper was made possible with the generous support of Ambassador April H. Foley, who served as the United States Ambassador to Hungary from 2006 -2009.
This episode is supported by former Congressman Herb Klein of New Jersey and by Jim Gottstein, author of The Zyprexa Papers.

Episode 19: Rule of Law Season – The Real Story of Kagame’s Rwanda Apr 07, 2021

For the fifth episode of our Rule of Law Season, we speak with journalist and author Anjan Sundaram to help us understand what is happening with the rule of law in Rwanda. The country is often held up as a democratic success story in Africa, as it has achieved stability and prosperity over the last 25 years since the horrific genocide of 1994. But Anjan explains that the real story is very different, and he speaks from very personal experience. He moved to Kigali, Rwanda in 2009 and began teaching journalism to Rwandan reporters – and then, one by one, his students began to run into a series of misfortunes that couldn’t have been mere coincidence. Anjan came to realize that he was witnessing the fall of free speech and the rise of President Paul Kagame’s dictatorship in Rwanda. Anjan speaks about the impact of Kagame’s authoritarian regime on the everyday lives of Rwandans, the brazen ways in which he stifles any dissent, and how western countries have actually emboldened Kagame to consolidate his power. He also discusses the Rwandan government’s kidnapping of human rights hero Paul Rusesabagina and the show trial he faces in Kigali, and he explains what it will mean for any critics of President Kagame going forward.

Anjan Sundaram Official Website

“Rwanda’s Rendition of a Hollywood Hero Confirms the Country’s Descent into Dictatorship”, by Anjan Sundaram in Foreign Policy

“I Think I May Die Tonight”, excerpt from Bad News by Anjan Sundaram in Foreign Policy

Bad News: Last Journalists in a Dictatorship by Anjan Sundaram

YouTube: Rwanda paid for the flight that led to Paul Rusesabagina arrest – UpFront

The Daily: A Battle for the Soul of Rwanda

A Tribute to Paul Rusesabagina by Congressman Tom Lantos (July 25, 2005)

Hotel Rwanda Rusesabagina Foundation - #FreeRusesabagina
This season of The Keeper was made possible with the generous support of Ambassador April H. Foley, who served as the United States Ambassador to Hungary from 2006 -2009.
This episode is also supported by four distinguished professors from the University of New Hampshire Franklin Pierce School of Law:

Professor John Greabe, Director of the Warren B. Rudman Center for Justice, Leadership & Public Service.

Professor Albert “Buzz” Scherr, Chair of the International Criminal Law and Justice Program and former Director of the State Department Rule of Law Project in Northern Russia.

Professor Robert E. McDaniel, a former U.S. Federal Prosecutor in Washington, DC, former Head of Legal Affairs for the OSCE in the Republic of Kosovo and now a faculty member in the International Criminal Law and Justice Program.

Judge Arthur Gajarsa, who joined the faculty as Distinguished Jurist-in-Residence after retiring from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

Episode 18: Rule of Law Season – The Democracy Activist Putin Wants Dead Mar 19, 2021

Vladimir Kara-Murza has spent the better part of the last two decades fighting for the rule of law in Russia as a journalist, filmmaker and opposition politician. But in Putin’s Russia, this is a very dangerous line of work. Not once, but twice, he has been the victim of a poison attack and barely escaped with his life. Just last weekend, he was arrested and detained by the Russian government during a meeting of independent and opposition politicians. These are all clear signs of the total lack of rule of law in Russia, but Vladimir continues to press bravely forward in his work advocating for democracy. In this episode, we talk about the change that Vladimir sees coming to Russia, what it will take to eventually end Putin’s reign, and the outlook for a post-Putin Russia.
This episode is supported by former Congressman Don Bonker.

Read Vladimir Kara-Murza’s opinion pieces in The Washington Post

Bellingcat Investigation into Vladimir Kara-Murza’s Suspected Poisonings

Putin’s Palace YouTube documentary

Episode 17: Rule of Law Season – Hong Kong Activist in Exile Mar 05, 2021

In this episode, we focus on a part of the world that has become one of the front lines of the fight to uphold the Rule of Law – Hong Kong. In recent years, the Chinese Communist Party has been imposing increasingly strict measures on the once autonomous and democratic Hong Kong, designed to erode that autonomy. The response has not come from the powerful or well-connected members of Hong Kong society, but from the vibrant, beating heart of Hong Kong: its youth. Nathan Law, who became the youngest lawmaker ever elected to the Hong Kong Legislative Council in 2016, has emerged as one of the most recognizable and respected voices on the Hong Kong democracy movement. He spoke to us from the UK, where he is now living in exile, about China’s spreading authoritarianism, the global importance of Hong Kong’s struggle for freedom and autonomy, and his optimism that democracy will prevail in the end.
This episode is sponsored by John and Judith Ransmeier and brought to you by Sheehan Phinney Law Firm, the business law firm.

Nathan Law – The Magnitsky Human Rights Award

Give Hong Kong the Autonomy It Was Promised, Nathan Law in The New York Times

Mr. Biden, Keep the Pressure on Hong Kong, Nathan Law in The New York Times
No More Waiting: The Time Has Come to Fight for Hong Kong, Katrina Lantos Swett in The Hill
Lantos Foundation advocacy for Joshua Wong and Agnes Chow

Interview with Joshua Wong on The Keeper

Episode 16: Rule of Law Season – Freedom's Counsel Feb 19, 2021

On the first episode of this Rule of Law season, we talked about the rule of law as a “a government of laws and not men”. Our guest on this episode, Professor Irwin Cotler, has his own shorthand for the rule of law: “the pursuit of justice”. If anyone in this world is intimately familiar with the tireless, unrelenting, undaunted pursuit of justice, it is Irwin Cotler – an accomplished academic, renowned international human rights lawyer, former Member of Parliament in Canada, as well as former Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Founder and Chair of the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights, and currently Canada’s first ever Special Envoy on Preserving Holocaust Remembrance and Combatting Anti-Semitism. In this episode, we discuss his four decades of serving as counsel for some of the world’s most prominent dissidents and political prisoners of conscience, as well as what he sees as worrying signs of a global resurgence in authoritarianism.
This episode of The Keeper is supported by Elaine and Jared Genser, and Jim Gottstein, author of The Zyprexa Papers.

Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights

For Irwin Cotler, neither a pandemic nor retirement from politics can slow his fight for human rights (The Globe and Mail)

Irwin Cotler named special envoy for Holocaust remembrance and the fight against anti-Semitism (CBC)

Irwin Cotler speaks at the 2012 Oslo Freedom Forum

Episode 15: Rule of Law Season – A Government of Laws Not Men Feb 03, 2021

This episode kicks off our new season, where we will be exploring the significance of three simple words: Rule of Law. But what does that phrase actually mean? Is it an abstraction? An impossible ideal? Or something real and practical that holds democratic societies together? To help answer these questions and more, we spoke to one of America’s preeminent legal scholars on the rule of law, Professor Harold Koh.

Professor Koh is the Sterling Professor of International Law at Yale Law School and one of the Lantos Foundation’s Rule of Law lecturers. In addition to his legal scholarship, he has served as U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, and as the legal adviser of the State Department. In this episode, we cover everything from what the rule of law means, to where we see it being violated in the world, to how we can best preserve and uphold it at home in America.

Harold Koh Biography

Peter Gruber Rule of Law Clinic

2018 Lantos Rule of Law Lecture

United Nations and the Rule of Law

World Justice Project – What is the Rule of Law

American Bar Association – Rule of Law

Rule of Law Season Trailer Jan 28, 2021

The new season of The Keeper will focus on three simple, but powerful, words: Rule of Law. When we decided to make this the focus of our season, we never imagined that the start of 2021 would bring this concept to the very forefront of public discourse. From the arrest of Alexey Navalny and mass protests in Russia, to China's brutal crackdown on democracy activists in Hong Kong, to the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol, there has never been a more important time to understand and commit to the rule of law.
But what does that phrase even mean? In the coming episodes, Katrina Lantos Swett, host of The Keeper, will speak with some of the world's most brilliant legal scholars and human rights leaders, people like Irwin Cotler and Professor Harold Koh, to understand why the rule of law matters so much to building free and just societies. She will also speak with activists and dissidents from around the world, like Nathan Law and Vladimir Kara-Murza, who are bravely fighting for their countries to uphold the rule of law.
Join us for our Rule of Law Season as we grapple with what the rule of law means, what happens – especially to human rights – when it is cast aside, and how we can work to preserve it, at home in America and around the globe.
The season launches in February, so stay tuned!

Episode 14: Solidarity Sabbath Season – A Humanitarian with a Bucket and Scraper Aug 19, 2020

The final episode of this special Solidarity Sabbath season on anti-Semitism is being released on World Humanitarian Day. The United Nations calls this day a global celebration of people helping people. There are numerous examples of humanitarians throughout history who have given so much of themselves to fight anti-Semitism or to protect the Jewish people. But not every humanitarian’s contribution to the world is grand or dramatic. Sometimes, humanitarians accomplish great and lasting service to humanity through small and simple acts. This episode offers the story of one such humanitarian – a German woman, Irmela Mensah-Schramm, who has quietly taken it upon herself to remove, erase or cover up every pro-Nazi, anti-Semitic sticker, poster or graffiti that she comes across. There is no organization backing her, no funding from any government agency – just a decent, good humored, brave woman with a bucket, a scraper and an inner moral compass that we should all seek to emulate. Irmela, who is a grantee of the Lantos Foundation’s Front Line Fund, exemplifies the words of Stephen Grellet, a Quaker missionary from the late 1700s, who wrote, “I expect to pass through this world but once. Any good therefore that I can do, let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it for I shall not pass this way again.”

Front Line Fund

Meet the 71-year-old “Graffiti Grandma” Scrubbing Away Hate (Great Big Story)

Anti-Nazi ‘Graffiti Grandma’ Fined After Painting Over Nazi Tag (DW)

World Humanitarian Day (United Nations)

Episode 13: Solidarity Sabbath Season – Highways of Hate Aug 15, 2020

This episode, the fourth in the special Solidarity Sabbath season, takes a deeper look at an area where anti-Semitism, and hate of all forms, is spreading in alarming ways – the internet. Katrina Lantos Swett speaks with Yigal Carmon, President and co-founder of the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI). For more than two decades, MEMRI has done ground-breaking work, researching the most disturbing examples of extreme anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial in the Arabic-, Farsi- and Urdu-speaking world. While much of MEMRI’s work in the past focused on analysis of media outlets, textbooks, religious sermons and similar kinds of communication, MEMRI is increasingly seeing the internet as the major vector of hate speech against Jews and many other minority groups. This raises vexing questions about who should be held responsible for allowing such hate to spread online unchecked.

Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI)

The Hater Next Door: Online Incitement Against Minorities in America

Department of Justice’s Review of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act

Hard Questions: Who Should Decide What is Hate Speech in an Online Global Community? (Facebook)

Trump and Biden both want to revoke Section 230, but for different reasons (Business Insider)

Episode 12: Solidarity Sabbath Season - Survivors Jul 31, 2020

The Holocaust, or Shoah in Hebrew, refers to the World War II genocide of 6 million European Jews. This was unequivocally the most extreme and horrific example of anti-Semitism the world has ever seen. Yet, somehow Jewish survivors of this atrocity, including the Lantos Foundation’s namesake Tom Lantos, were able to emerge from this dark time with their spirits unbroken and with a deep sense of their responsibility to ensure that such horrors never happen again. In this episode, podcast host and Lantos Foundation President Dr. Katrina Lantos Swett speaks with two Holocaust survivors about their experiences during WWII and how they shaped the rest of their lives.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Yad Vashem – The World Holocaust Remembrance Center

USC Shoah Foundation

New Hampshire Governor Sununu signs genocide education bill

Maloney’s Never Again Education Act Signed into Law

Episode 11: Solidarity Sabbath Season - Special Envoy Elan Carr Jul 17, 2020

Episode 11 of The Keeper, and the second episode of our Solidarity Sabbath season, will bring you into the 21st century of anti-Semitism with a conversation with the United States’ top diplomat tasked with combating anti-Semitism. Elan Carr, the U.S. Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism, joins Dr. Katrina Lantos Swett to speak about his work in the fight against anti-Semitism – what keeps him up at night, and what encourages him and gives him hope for the future.

Links:

Office of the Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism

Defining Anti-Semitism

Executive Order on Combating Anti-Semitism

The Hater Next Door report

“Commit to Fighting the Hater Next Door”, The Hill Op-ed by Yigal Carmon and Dr. Katrina Lantos Swett

German Parliament Deems B.D.S. Movement Anti-Semitic

Episode 10: Solidarity Sabbath Season - An Ancient Hatred Jul 02, 2020

In the first episode of the Lantos Foundation’s special Solidarity Sabbath podcast season, we take a deeper look at the origins and history of Anti-Semitism. It is often called “an ancient hatred” or “the oldest hatred”. We ask David Nirenberg, Dean of the University of Chicago Divinity School, just how far back does it really go? Why has it been so enduring across time, geography, religion, culture, politics – even in places where no actual Jews live? This episode provides context for what will be a special season devoted exclusively to the subject of anti-Semitism and how we can combat it.
Links:
Plot Against America trailer
Defining Anti-Semitism
A Brief History of Anti-Semitism (Anti-Defamation League)
Viral trailer
David Nirenberg
How Anti-Semitism rise on the left and right (New Yorker)
Seventy-five years after Auschwitz, anti-Semitism is on the rise (The Atlantic)

Solidarity Sabbath Podcast Season Trailer Jun 19, 2020

The Keeper podcast is back – this time with something new and a little different! Like so many other things, plans for the Lantos Foundation’s annual religious freedom initiative – the Solidarity Sabbath – fell victim to the COVID-19 outbreak this year. The Solidarity Sabbath usually offers a chance to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with a persecuted or oppressed religious community. In a time of social distancing, we’re standing virtually with the Jewish community all over the world as we bring you an entire season of The Keeper focused exclusively on anti-Semitism. The season will do a deep dive on this ancient hatred and will feature guests like Elan Carr, U.S. Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism, Yigal Carmon, President of the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), David Nirenberg, Dean of The University of Chicago Divinity School, and others. Episodes will be released beginning in late June – make sure to subscribe through iTunes or wherever you listen to your podcasts so you don’t miss them.

Episode 9 : Ensaf Haidar May 30, 2019

We were thrilled to be joined by Ensaf Haidar, the wife of imprisoned Saudi blogger Raif Badawi. Raif’s unjust imprisonment and lashing has become an international human rights cause, thanks in no small measure to the tireless efforts of Ensaf. She has become the face of the movement to free Raif. Despite all of Ensaf’s apparent physical daintiness, there can be no mistaking her strength and determination when it comes to leading the fight to free her husband.

Episode 8 : Katrina Lantos Swett Remarks at Evian Conference Aug 27, 2018

In July of 1938, representatives of 32 nations were summoned to Evian France at the call of President Franklin Roosevelt to try to find a solution to the Jewish refugee problem - a crisis precipitated by the increasingly draconian and violent persecution of Jews in Germany and Austria. The conference, which began with high hopes and high-minded rhetoric, was to end in abject failure. The assembled nations refused to open their hearts and their shores to the persecuted Jews of Europe and their abdication of moral responsibility was taken by Hitler as a green light to move forward with his genocidal "final solution". In July of this year, a symposium was convened in the same Hotel Royale where the 1938 gathering was held. The purpose of this event was to consider the lessons and warnings of The Evian Conference on its 80th anniversary. Dr. Katrina Lantos Swett, President of the Lantos Foundation and host of our podcast, was invited to give the keynote address for the symposium. Her insights and analysis are informed not only by her years of leadership and activism within the human rights community, but also by the lessons she learned as the daughter of Hungarian Holocaust survivors. We are happy to share Dr. Lantos Swett's remarks with you.
The Evian Conference, 1938

Episode 7 : Annette Lantos on Raoul Wallenberg Aug 09, 2018

We are happy to welcome back the Chair of the Lantos Foundation, Annette Lantos, for another episode of #TheKeeperPodcast! For more than two decades, by the side of Congressman Tom Lantos, she worked as the unpaid Executive Director of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus. Annette Lantos' evolution from wife, mother, and educator to activist began in the late 1970's when she first learned that the hero who had saved her during the Holocaust might still be alive and languishing in a Soviet prison. We spoke with Annette about that hero - Raoul Wallenberg, the incredible impact he had on her life, and the example he is to all of us.
Lantos Foundation Calls on Russia to Release all New Documents on Raoul Wallenberg

Episode 6 : Joshua Wong Jul 26, 2018

Joshua Wong was only 17 when he led the 2014 Umbrella Movement fighting for Hong Kong's democratization. His inspirational mobilization of over 100,000 Hong Kong citizens to engage in peaceful protest on behalf of democracy and the rule of law captivated the world and galvanized a generation of young people to become activists and to peacefully resist Chinese control of their government. Joshua and his fellow Occupy leaders have been nominated for the Nobel Prize and we were honored to have him join us on The Keeper.

2018 Lantos Human Rights Prize to be Awarded to Joshua Wong

SPECIAL RE-RELEASE. Episode 2 : Bill Browder Jul 18, 2018

On July 16th the world witnessed a stunning and deeply concerning press conference in which the President of the United States seemed to argue that there was a credibility equivalence between US intelligence agencies findings on Russian interference in the 2016 elections and the laughable denials of Vladimir Putin, a former KGB officer who many believe to be a cold blooded killer. Another outrageous moment during this memorable press event was when Putin suddenly launched an attack on Bill Browder, the brilliant and brave man behind the Sergei Magnitsky Accountability Act. Bill Browder’s herculean efforts to win the adoption of this ground breaking human rights law have done more to put actual teeth into the enforcement of human rights standards than almost any another initiative over the past two decades. It has also made him Putin’s No. 1 enemy and someone who daily faces the very real danger that Putin’s agents will succeed in murdering him as they have so many other so-called “enemies” of the Russian President.
Businessman Bill Browder Details Dealings With Russian Lawyer Tied To Trump - NPR
Red Notice: A True Story of High Finance, Murder, and One Man’s Fight for Justice by Bill Browder
Bill Browder Senate Testimony - Full Text

Episode 5 : Rebiya Kadeer Jul 13, 2018

What does it mean to be a mother? The word brings to mind ideas of love, sacrifice, devotion, and a determination never to give up on one’s children. It is both an immense responsibility and a privilege to be a mother. So, what does it mean to be a mother of a whole people? Our guest, Mrs. Rebiyah Kadeer, is known as the “mother of the Uyghur nation”. She is the acknowledged global leader of the Uyghur people - a community of over 15 million living primarily in the East Turkestan region of China where this largely Muslim community has been subjected to discrimination, persecution, mass incarceration and cultural and religious oppression at the hands of the Chinese government.
EU Must Demand that China Release 1 Million Uyghurs Detained in 'Re-education' Camps

The Times of Israel : Muslim Uyghurs, urging freedom for ‘East Turkestan,’ picket Chinese Embassy in Washington

Episode 4 : Annette Lantos Dec 18, 2017

On a bitter cold Christmas eve in 1944, a little Jewish girl, 13 years old but with her diminutive size and Shirley Temple curls looked closer to 8, kissed her mother goodbye and alone began to make her way towards the Swiss border. A short while earlier, they had fled from Hungary where Jews were facing deportation and death at the hands of the Nazi occupiers. The family had sought refuge in Switzerland, but the Swiss had expelled them. They had heard that children alone might be given refuge and so with fearful broken hearts, they said goodbye and this child walked with her little suitcase in hand towards the barbed wire of no-man’s land. Mrs. Annette Lantos shares some of her story of that terrible night and how she survived to become one of our country’s great advocates for human rights all around the world.

ANNETTE LANTOS BIO
TOM LANTOS LIFE STORY - AS TOLD BY ANNETTE LANTOS

Episode 3 : Father Patrick Desbois Oct 24, 2017

Over fifty years ago the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. spoke about the fierce urgency of now as he sought to make America at long last live up to the promises of our founding. Our guest on this episode of The Keeper is another man of the cloth, Father Patrick Desbois, who understands the fierce urgency of history and the need to document it and claim its secrets before all the witnesses to the past are gone. Father Desbois is the author of the book “The Holocaust by Bullets”, which recounts his mission to uncover the truth behind the murder of 1.5 million Jews in the Ukraine. With utter dedication and quiet determination, Father Desbois has succeeded in breaking the code of silence and the cloak of invisibility surrounding these unimaginable crimes.
THE HIDDEN HOLOCAUST ON 60 MINUTES

YAHAD-IN UNUM

THE HOLOCAUST BY BULLETS: A PRIEST'S JOURNEY TO UNCOVER THE TRUTH BEHIND THE MURDER OF 1.5 MILLION JEWS BY FATHER PATRICK DESBOIS

Episode 2 : Bill Browder Oct 18, 2017

Bill Browder, founder of Hermitage Capital, has become an unlikely human rights crusader who was almost single-handedly responsible for the adoption of the Magnitsky Act, a groundbreaking piece of human rights legislation. Bill and Katrina recently had the chance to talk about his life and the singular, tragic injustice that transformed him from an international financier to an international advocate for human rights and the rule of law.
Businessman Bill Browder Details Dealings With Russian Lawyer Tied To Trump - NPR
Red Notice: A True Story of High Finance, Murder, and One Man’s Fight for Justice by Bill Browder
Bill Browder Senate Testimony - Full Text

Episode 1 : Jared Genser & Yang Jianli Oct 16, 2017

Recently, Katrina sat down to speak with Mr. Jared Genser and Dr. Yang Jianli. Jared is the founder of Freedom Now, an independent nongovernmental organization that works to free prisoners of conscience around the world. He is often referred to in the media as "the extractor" for his work as a leading human rights lawyer on behalf of prisoners of conscience. Dr. Yang Jianli, founder of Initiatives for China, is a Chinese dissident who was detained and imprisoned by the Chinese government in the early 2000's for his activism. Katrina spoke with these two extraordinary men about how they came to be human rights activists, the shameful death of Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo in Chinese custody, the Chinese governments moral bankruptcy, the underlying political weakness that the regime is desperate to hide, and a bold prediction from Jianli regarding the Chinese regime's inevitable end.
FREEDOM NOW
INITIATIVES FOR CHINA
JARED GENSER TWITTER
YANG JIANLI TWITTER

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2018 Lantos Human Rights Prize to be Awarded to Joshua Wong

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