21st International Solidarity Forum

When

April 9, 2024 - April 12, 2024    
9:00 am - 6:00 pm

Where

Event Type

21st International Solidarity Forum 

This year’s International Solidarity Forum (ISF) will take place in New York City from April 9-12, 2024. The theme of this year’s Forum is “Human Dignity and Totalitarian Ideologies”. The Forum includes lectures, discussions, and UN-style negotiations to understand this critical and pressing topic.

 

Why Human Dignity and Totalitarian Ideologies?

Each and every generation must recommit to understanding, and defending, the dignity of the human person. 

Totalitarian ideologies at their core aim to reshape ideas and truths about the human person in order to bring about their desired political and social change and reform. The end of the 20th century didn’t mean the end of totalitarian ideologies, as many people hoped. Rather, all over the world today, old and new totalitarian ideologies influence people’s values, ideals and beliefs to disruptive and damaging effect at the personal and social level.

The idea of equal rights for everyone is called into question by a growing list of “isms”.  The free exchange of debate and ideas is mistaken for guilt by association. Coercion through foreign aid pressure continues to be applied globally, though under greener pseudonyms than in decades past. Fundamental truths about the human person must always be at the center of policy and culture, and yet they are increasingly veiled or entirely confused by gender and transhumanist ideologies. 

The World Youth Alliance looks forward to hosting a robust and engaged conversation about these and other critical issues at this year’s International Solidarity Forum in New York City.

 

Speakers

Dr. Eithan Haim

Dr. Eithan is a 33-year-old general surgeon. In 2018, he graduated from the Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine at Florida Atlantic University, and in 2023, he completed his General Surgery Residency at the Department of Surgery at Baylor College of Medicine. He was a whistleblower in a story released on May 16, 2023, exposing that Texas Children’s Hospital—the largest children’s hospital in the world—was lying to the public about the existence of their transgender surgery program. Partly due to the story’s release, the very next day, the Texas Legislature voted, with bipartisan support, to ban transgender medical interventions on minors.

Carlo Lancellotti

Carlo Lancellotti is Professor of Mathematics at the College of Staten Island and a member of the graduate faculty in Physics at the City University of New York. He received his first degree (in physics) from the University of Milan, then completed an MS in Engineering Physics and a PhD in Applied Mathematics at the University of Virginia. His field of scholarship is mathematical physics, with a special emphasis on the kinetic theory of plasmas and gravitating systems. Recently he also endeavored to translate into English a collection of essays by Italian philosopher Augusto Del Noce, which was published by McGill-Queen’s University Press with the title “The Crisis of Modernity.”

Ryszard Legutko

Ryszard Legutko is a Polish philosopher and politician. He is a professor of philosophy at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków. He is the author of several books, inluding The Demon in Democracy: Totalitarian Temptations in Free Societies. In 2005 he was elected to a seat in the Polish Senate (representing the Law and Justice Party), where he became Deputy Speaker. In 2007 he was Poland’s Education Minister, and from 2007-2009 Secretary of State in the Chancellory of President Lech Kaczyński. He is currently a member of the European Parliament sitting on the Culture and Education Committee and Co-chairman of the Conservatives and Reformists parliamentary group.

Helen Pluckrose

Helen Pluckrose is a British author and cultural writer and commentator who describes herself as a liberal humanist. She has a degree in English literature from the University of East London and a master’s degree in early modern studies at Queen Mary University of London. From the age of 17 to 34, Pluckrose worked in social care mostly providing for the personal care needs of elderly people and those with physical and learning disabilities. In 2020, along with James Lindsay she published the book Cynical Theories: How Activist Scholarship Made Everything About Race, Gender, and Identity—and Why This Harms Everybody. She also founded the organization Counterweight that helps individuals and organizations experiencing problems with the imposition of “Critical Social Justice” ideas.

Chen Guangcheng

Chen Guangcheng is a lawyer and human rights activist from China, now a dissident living in the US. He brought many legal cases to court in China, notably related to the brutal implementation of the one-child policy and government corruption. His field investigations led him to discover and document the still widespread practice of forcing women to undergo abortion (although it was officially abandoned in 1990) and other human rights abuses. In 2005, Chen filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of women from Linyi against the city’s family planning staff. For his actions, he was persecuted by the authorities in China, including secret detention, show trials, and spent 4 years a prisoner of conscience. Even after being released, he was put under house arrest. World Youth Alliance called for his release in 2012. In April of that year, he escaped house arrest and found refuge at the US Embassy in Beijing. He left the embassy having received guarantees for his freedom. However, soon after becoming aware of the threats against his family, he left China for the US 17 days later, on May 19. He is currently a Distinguished Fellow at the Center for Human Rights of the Catholic University of America and became a US citizen in 2021.

Mike Gonzalez

Mike Gonzalez is an Angeles T. Arredondo E Pluribus Unum Senior Fellow at The Heritage Foundation. With nearly twenty years of experience as a journalist, fifteen of which were spent reporting from Europe, Asia, and Latin America, he also gathered public service experience, having served as a speechwriter for Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox and later contributing to the State Department’s European Bureau. Since 2009, he has been a prominent figure at The Heritage Foundation, focusing his writings on national identity, diversity, multiculturalism, assimilation, nationalism, and foreign policy. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Communications from Emerson College and a master’s in Business Administration from Columbia Business School.

Heather Mac Donald

Heather Mac Donald is the Thomas W. Smith Fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a contributing editor of City Journal. She is a New York Times bestselling author and recipient of the 2005 Bradley Prize. Through her extensive body of work, including her latest book ‘When Race Trumps Merit,’ she addresses critical societal issues such as higher education, immigration, policing, homelessness, criminal justice reform, and race relations. Her notable publications include ‘The Diversity Delusion,’ ‘The War on Cops,’ and ‘The Immigration Solution,’ coauthored with Victor Davis Hanson and Steven Malanga. With a background in law and extensive experience in public service, Mac Donald has testified before U.S. House and Senate Committees and received numerous awards for her journalistic excellence, including the Civilian Valor Award and the Excellence in Media Award.


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Download the ISF 2024 Schedule  

 



Registration: 

  • $126 registration fee

Scholarships, and accommodation support, available. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis.
You may contact events@wya.net with any questions.