TIBET 2020: A SPECIAL ADVOCACY WEBINAR FOR TIBETAN ASSOCIATION LEADERS IN UNITED STATES

Thursday, September 10, 2020
11:15 am EDT/8:15 am PDT – 1:45 pm EDT/10:45 am PDT

Please note:

• The entire session will be from 11:15 am to 1:45pm. The BlueJeans meeting link will be live at 11:00 am EDT/8:00 am PDT. Please plan to join for the entire duration if you can. The meeting will be locked only during the Tibet Talk livestream session which begins at 12:55 pm EDT/9:55 am PDT to 1:30 pm EDT/ 10:30 am EDT.
• There will be opportunities for Q&A, so please plan to share your experiences / knowledge, learn from others, and have some fun!

11:00 am EDT/8:00 am PDT

• Online platform opens
• (Please keep your microphone and camera turned off)

11:15 am EDT/8:15 am PDT

• Welcome and check-in
• Tencho Gyatso, Director of Outreach, ICT

11:30 am EDT/8:30 am PDT

• Introduction to the Issue

• The Tibet Movement and You (7 minutes)
• Bhuchung Tsering, ICT Vice President

• Tibet & US-China Relations (7 minutes)
• Matteo Mecacci, ICT President

• Q &A session (15 minutes)

12:00 pm EDT/ 9:00 am PDT

• US Policy on Tibet / What Difference You Can Make

• Jonathan Stivers (7 minutes) followed by Q&A (7 minutes)
• Staff Director, Congressional Executive Commission on China

• Bethany Poulos (7 minutes) followed by Q&A (7 minutes)
• Foreign Affairs Advisor to Senator Marco Rubio

12:30 pm EDT / 9:30 am PDT

• A Conversation with Ileana Ros-Lehtinen

• Former Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen will have a brief intimate session with the Tibetan community leaders before beginning the livestream session. The Congresswoman will speak on the importance of direct advocacy of diaspora communities in the American political system.

12:55 pm EDT/ 9:55 am PDT (Livestream begins)

• Meeting will be LOCKED (you will NOT be able to join during the livestream session from 12:55pm EDT/9:55am PDT)

• TIBET TALKS – A CONVERSATION WITH ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN
• Moderated by ICT President Matteo Mecacci (30 minutes)

• (Program will be livestreamed via ICT Facebook and website. More details at www.https://savetibet.org/live). BlueJeans meeting participants will be prompted to turn OFF camera/mike until end of livestream.

• During three decades in Congress, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen was an outspoken supporter of Tibet and helped lead the effort to award the Dalai Lama the Congressional Gold Medal. In this discussion for ICT’s Tibet 2020 campaign, Ros-Lehtinen will explain how the advocacy of ordinary Americans has helped the Tibetan people—and can do so again this election year.

1:30 pm EDT/ 10:30 am PDT (Livestream ends)

• After the livestream ends, we will continue the meeting in BlueJeans, where you will have the chance to speak with ICT staff in an informal interactive session.

1:45 pm EDT / 10:45 am PDT

• Session concludes

A FEW ADDITIONAL MATERIALS

How to join

• We will connect through BlueJeans. To join the meeting, please click the link shared via email to you directly.
• You will also get a direct calendar invite from BlueJeans.
• If you are on a laptop or desktop, you should see an option at the bottom of the page to join through your browser so that you don’t have to download the BlueJeans app. Please use Chrome or Safari browser.
• If you are joining through a mobile device, you have to download the app to join the conversation.
• Once connected, please keep your microphone and camera turned off.

Speaker Bios

Jonathan Stivers, was appointed by Chairman Jim McGovern as Staff Director of the CECC in March 2019. In the Obama Administration, Jon served as the Assistant Administrator for the Bureau for Asia at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Prior to the Executive Branch, Jon served as Senior Advisor to Speaker Nancy Pelosi for 15 years where he focused on foreign policy, trade, global health, development and human rights.


Bethany Poulos, serves as Foreign Affairs Advisor to U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL).  In her role, she advises the Senator on issues related to Asia, the Middle East, Europe, international human rights and democracy promotion, global women’s issues, and humanitarian assistance.


Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, served for almost three decades as a member of Congress representing diverse areas in South Florida. She was the Chairwoman emeritus of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs and the Chairwoman of the Subcommittee on the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).  Rep. Ros-Lehtinen has been a consistent voice for democratic movements in all corners of the globe. Starting with her native island of Cuba, in opposition to the Cuban government, she has been and remains an outspoken advocate for freedom, democracy, the rule of law and human rights. She is currently a Senior Advisor at the law firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld.


Bhuchung Tsering, joined the International Campaign for Tibet in Washington, D.C. in 1995 and is currently the Vice President. Before joining ICT, he served in the Tibetan Government-in-Exile and in the Office of H.H. the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala as well as at the Office of Tibet in Switzerland. He is a member of the Task Force set up by the Central Tibetan Administration to work on issues relating to the dialogue process with the Chinese leadership. He has also been a member of the team led by the envoys of H.H. the Dalai Lama in the discussions that they had with the Chinese leadership since 2002.


Matteo Mecacci, joined as the president of the International Campaign for Tibet in 2013. He formerly served as a member of the Italian Chamber of Deputies and was a member of the Italian delegation to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe. He served as Chairperson of the Italian Parliamentary Intergroup for Tibet, and in 2009, and organized the 5th World Parliamentarians Convention on Tibet in Rome. He was Co-chair of the International Network of Parliamentarians on Tibet (INPaT) and played an active role in promoting Tibetan democracy in exile. He also became Co-Chair of the Tibetan Election Observation Mission in 2011.