None of this may sound particularly "alternative". But in recent years some in the "human rights community" have become so exercised about alleged or genuine victims of America, Britain and their allies in the "War on Terror" that they find it hard to become equally excited about Vietnamese Buddhist monks, North Korean concentration camps or Mauritanian slaves. Others have become less focused on supporting dissidents in distant dungeons, and more interested in wider "progressive" issues such as globalisation, economic inequality and environmental degradation.

When Irene Khan, the former secretary-general of Amnesty International, said in 2005 that Guantánamo Bay was "the gulag of our time", it revealed a sad ignorance of the vast degradation machine that killed many millions of people. It also sent a signal to those in the real gulags of our time — the Laogai system in China and its equivalent in North Korea — that their plight might not be a priority for Amnesty. 

OFF aims to restore the balance and highlight causes that are too often ignored or forgotten. And unlike events such as the UN's notorious "Durban II" conference at which Iran's President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad railed against the US and Zionism, it provides an intimate space for dissidents and human rights defenders from around the world to meet each other, to talk to internet entrepreneurs, academics, politicians, journalists and to draw inspiration and encouragement. 

OFF is the brainchild of Thor Halvorssen, a 34-year-old Venezuelan-Norwegian filmmaker and head of the New York-based Human Rights Foundation (HRF). Halvorssen has been involved in free-speech causes since his days at the University of Pennsylvania, but founded HRF after his mother was shot and wounded by government agents at a peaceful demonstration in Caracas. He hopes that the OFF will become the "Davos of Human Rights".

Among the two score speakers this year were Garry Kasparov, Rebiya Kadeer, the leader in exile of China's Uighurs, Mart Laar, who led Estonia's "Singing Revolution", Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, North Korean defector Kang Chol-hwan, anti-slavery campaigner Benjamin Skinner, Yemeni  journalist and political prisoner Abdulkarim al-Khaiwani and the former Malaysian cabinet minister and now opposition figure Anwar Ibrahim, who was jailed on false charges of corruption and sodomy. 

Ibrahim was responsible for some of the event's better moments of black humour, joking that Malaysia had "freedom of speech but not freedom after speech". He also recalled being beaten by the country's inspector general of police and admonished the audience: "If you're going to take power, make sure that your inspector general is not too strong. That way if one day he beats you up it won't be fatal."