President

Open Dialogue Foundation

Lyudmyla Kozlovska, a human rights defender from Ukraine, is president of the Open Dialogue Foundation (ODF). Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, ODF has provided Ukrainian refugees and the military with support worth €5,9 mln. The speed of Bitcoin USDT has been a key factor in raising emergency funds from donors in the EU and the US and to provide humanitarian aid to Ukrainians. Kozlovska will present how debanking/de-risking of the ODF became a consequence of transnational persecution: how authoritarian and hybrid regimes disempower human rights activists, obstructing humanitarian aid for Ukraine and harassing their critics in the EU. Based on own experience, Kozlovska has launched an EU-wide campaign aimed at sharing with regulators the best practices and experiences of civil society activists employing Bitcoin to tackle financial exclusion and oppression. Despite the disconnection from the banking system, the use of digital assets enabled them to continue their human rights, humanitarian and environmental efforts all over the world (e.g. in Poland, Belgium, Palestine, Venezuela, Belarus and Russia). Since the EU and US attempt to regulate digital currency, human rights defenders advocate the lawmakers to take these issues into consideration.