San Francisco (September 10, 2012)—The San Francisco Freedom Forum, to be held September 28, will connect a network of international human rights advocates with a diverse Bay Area audience.

In her first trip to the United States in more than 20 years, Burmese opposition leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi will address a community of innovators and trendsetters from advocacy, business, media, policy, and technology.

Those speaking alongside her include: Russian democracy activist Garry Kasparov; Saudi women’s rights pioneer Manal al-Sharif; Pussy Riot spokesman Pyotr Verzilov; Egyptian-American journalist Mona Eltahawy; Slate editor William J. Dobson; Ghanaian economist George Ayittey; drug policy reformer Ethan Nadelmann; anti-genocide artist Naomi Natale; conflict psychologist Justine Hardy; Iranian author and former prisoner of conscience Marina Nemat; and Venezuelan journalist Marcel Granier.

“These remarkable individuals coming to San Francisco are playing a major role on the world stage. They are at the top of their respective fields and they in San Francisco they will collaborate on how best to promote freedom in disparate societies. Through their differences, they are bound by the pursuit of fundamental and universal human rights,” said Freedom Forum founder Thor Halvorssen.

The Forum will begin in downtown San Francisco with coffee and registration at 11:30am on Friday, September 28, and conclude that evening with the awarding of the Václav Havel Prize for Creative Dissent to Daw Suu Kyi.

Established in Oslo, Norway, in 2009, the Freedom Forum is an international conference series produced by the Human Rights Foundation (HRF). The Forum seeks to: inspire action through the exchange of ideas; cultivate a vibrant international community; spotlight the work of activists and innovators; establish a human rights axis for journalists; connect participants with allies and supporters; raise human rights to the top of the global agenda; and create a publicly accessible archive of powerful human rights testimony.

Videos of past Freedom Forum speakers—including Elena Bonner, Shirin Ebadi, Leymah Gbowee, Wael Ghonim, Václav Havel, Anwar Ibrahim, Yoani Sánchez, Peter Thiel, Alejandro Toledo, Lech Walesa, and Elie Wiesel—can be found here.

For event updates, please follow the Freedom Forum on Twitter at hashtag #SFFF and Facebook. For registration, media, or sponsorship inquiries, please contact Pedro Pizano at (212) 246.8486 or pedro@SanFranciscoFreedomForum.com.