Over the weekend of November 5-7, emerging leaders from ten countries spread over four continents joined together for 21Wilberforce’s inaugural Global FoRB Action Summit. This global and multi-faith group of university students and young professionals learned from and interacted directly with world-class advocacy trainers, including the former UN Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Religion or Belief, the Vice-Chair of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, the president of an advocacy non-profit, and professors from top universities. Additionally, some of the most powerful training of the weekend came during the sessions where the participants strategized with representatives of a community in Pakistan facing severe persecution for their faith on how to best advocate for religious prisoners of conscience currently on death row.
Taking this training, the participants translated their knowledge into action by working together to craft advocacy campaigns for these religious prisoners of conscience in Pakistan. Their work and the connections the participants have built provide a foundation for a network of emerging leaders that will put these and additional campaigns into action to make a real difference for communities facing religious persecution.
Participants shared that the summit “…revealed to me a new sense of where I could get involved in the future and areas of religious freedom advocacy that I want to look into being a part of” and that the summit “…gave me better practical knowledge in how to best advocate. I’m excited to put these new skills to use and become more active in the field.” 21Wilberforce looks forward to continuing to work with these emerging leaders and to provide new opportunities for this global network to put their innovative advocacy campaigns into action.