Aung San Suu Kyi, sometimes abbreviated to Suu Kyi, is a Burmese politician, diplomat, author, and a 1991 Nobel Peace Prize laureate who served as State Counsellor of Myanmar and Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2016 to 2021. She has served as the general secretary of the National League for Democracy (NLD) since the party's founding in 1988 and was registered as its chairperson while it was a legal party from 2011 to 2023. She played a vital role in Myanmar's transition from military junta to partial democracy in the 2010s.
The Rafto Foundation for Human Rights was established in 1986 in memory of Thorolf Rafto, a professor of economic history at the Norwegian School of Economics (NHH) and a human rights activist. The main objective of the Rafto Foundation is the promotion of freedom of political expression and enterprise. The work of the foundation consists of different educational and informative projects, including the annual award of the Rafto Prize (Raftoprisen) each November. The foundation is based in Bergen, Norway and run by a small team of professionals and volunteers.
Mawlamyine University, located in Mawlamyine, is the largest university in Mon State, Myanmar. Being established in 1953, Mawlamyine University is the third oldest Arts and Science university in the country after Yangon University and Mandalay University. The university offers bachelor's and master's degree programs in liberal arts and sciences. It is one of the few universities in the country to offer a specialization in marine science.
The Elders is an international non-governmental organisation of public figures noted as senior statesmen, peace activists and human rights advocates, who were brought together by Nelson Mandela in 2007. They describe themselves as "independent global leaders working together for peace, justice, human rights and a sustainable planet". The goal Mandela set for The Elders was to use their "almost 1,000 years of collective experience" to work on solutions for seemingly insurmountable problems such as climate change, HIV/AIDS, and poverty, as well as to "use their political independence to help resolve some of the world's most intractable conflicts".
Yōhei Sasakawa is chairman of The Nippon Foundation, the World Health Organization Goodwill Ambassador for Leprosy Elimination, and Japan's Ambassador for the Human Rights of People Affected by Leprosy. His global fight against leprosy and its accompanying stigma and social discrimination is an issue to which he has remained highly committed for more than 40 years. As chairman of The Nippon Foundation, Japan's largest charitable foundation, he guides public-interest activities in modern Japan. Sasakawa received his degree from Meiji University’s School of Political Science and Economics. Sasakawa's father was businessman, politician, and philanthropist Ryōichi Sasakawa.
Jack Healey is an American human rights activist, author and the former director of Amnesty International USA. He is best known as the organizer of Amnesty's benefit concerts in the 1980's featuring bands like U2, the Police, Peter Gabriel, Bruce Springsteen, Sting, Sinead O’Connor, Bob Dylan, Santana, Tracy Chapman and others.
The Thai Children's Trust, formerly Pattaya Orphanage Trust, is a registered charitable organization in the United Kingdom which supports vulnerable and disadvantaged children in Thailand. It helps fund projects for orphans, refugee children, HIV positive children and children with AIDS, homeless children, tsunami orphans and children and young people with disabilities. The Trust has recently helped support the Teacher Preparation Center, a training school for mobile teacher trainers, in Mae Sot. The TPC trains trainers who work in the Eastern states of Burma/Myanmar, trying to restore and improve educational standards in areas ravaged by years of civil war. The Trust has also found some funding for villageONE, a project combining education and community development which hopes to start work in Mon State, Burma/Myanmar, later this year.
Victor Santiago Pineda is a Venezuela-born social development scholar, serial social impact entrepreneur and disability rights expert. He is also an international speaker and consultant on accessibility related issues. Early in his career, he served as the youngest government delegate to participate in the drafting of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and thereafter launched the World Enabled Global Initiative, a disability affiliate program that combines the reach of the world's most active disabled persons' organizations (DPOs) and intergovernmental agencies. He also launched the Pineda Foundation, a voluntary non-profit that promotes the rights and dignities of young people with disabilities. Both were established in 2003.
Derek James Mitchell is an American diplomat with extensive experience in Asia policy. He was appointed by President Barack Obama as the first special representative and policy coordinator for Burma with rank of ambassador, and was sworn in by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on October 2, 2011. On June 29, 2012, the U.S. Senate confirmed him as the new United States Ambassador to Burma. On September 4, 2018, Mitchell succeeded Kenneth Wollack as president of the National Democratic Institute, a position he served until September 2023.
The 2011–2015 Myanmar political reforms were a series of political, economic and administrative reforms in Myanmar undertaken by the military-backed government. These reforms include the release of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest and subsequent dialogues with her, establishment of the National Human Rights Commission, general amnesties of more than 200 political prisoners, institution of new labour laws that allow labour unions and strikes, relaxation of press censorship, and regulations of currency practices. As a consequence of the reforms, ASEAN has approved Myanmar's bid for the chairmanship in 2014. United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited Myanmar on 1 December 2011, to encourage further progress; it was the first visit by a Secretary of State in more than fifty years. United States President Barack Obama visited one year later, becoming the first US president to visit the country.
Jay T. Snyder is an American philanthropist, businessman, diplomat and Democratic Party activist.
Ma Thida is a Burmese surgeon, writer, human rights activist and former prisoner of conscience. She has published under the pseudonym Suragamika which means "brave traveler". In Myanmar, Thida is best known as a leading intellectual, whose books deal with the country's political situation. She has worked as an editor at a Burmese monthly youth magazine and a weekly newspaper. She has been a surgeon at Muslim Free Hospital, which provides free services to the poor.
Than Nyein was a Burmese politician and physician. He was one of the founders of the National Democratic Force (NDF) party, after working for the National League for Democracy (NLD) since its inception in 1988.
Daw Khin Kyi Foundation is a national level Burmese charitable foundation. It was set up by Aung San Suu Kyi in 2012, and is named for her mother, Khin Kyi. It works to improve the education, health and welfare of the people of Myanmar. Htin Kyaw was a leader of the foundation before his election as President of Myanmar.
Su Su Lwin is a Burmese politician and former First Lady of Myanmar. She has been the MP for Thongwa Township in the House of Representatives since 2012. She is the wife of Htin Kyaw, the ninth President of Myanmar.
Ko Ni was a prominent Burmese lawyer and an expert on constitutional law. He was assassinated by gunshot in Yangon, Myanmar, on 29 January 2017.
General elections were held in Myanmar on 8 November 2020. Voting occurred in all constituencies, excluding seats appointed by or reserved for the military, to elect members to both the upper house - Amyotha Hluttaw and the lower house - Pyithu Hluttaw of the Assembly of the Union, as well as State and Regional Hluttaws (legislatures). Ethnic Affairs Ministers were also elected by their designated electorates on the same day, although only select ethnic minorities in particular states and regions were entitled to vote for them. A total of 1,171 national, state, and regional seats were contested in the election, with polling having taken place in all townships, including areas considered conflict zones and self-administered regions.
A coup d'état in Myanmar began on the morning of 1 February 2021, when democratically elected members of the country's ruling party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), were deposed by the Tatmadaw — Myanmar's military — which then vested power in a military junta. Acting president Myint Swe proclaimed a year-long state of emergency and declared power had been transferred to Commander-in-Chief of Defence Services Min Aung Hlaing. It declared the results of the November 2020 general election invalid and stated its intent to hold a new election at the end of the state of emergency. The coup d'état occurred the day before the Parliament of Myanmar was due to swear in the members elected at the 2020 election, thereby preventing this from occurring. President Win Myint and State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi were detained, along with ministers, their deputies, and members of Parliament.
Thinzar Shunlei Yi is a Burmese pro-democracy activist and television host. Following the 2021 Burmese coup d'état, she helped organize mass protests against the Tatmadaw. Born in Sagaing to a military family, she originally trained to become a high school teacher, graduating from the Yangon University of Education in 2013. Between 2012 and 2016, Thinzar Shunlei Yi was politically active in executive positions of several youth organizations, and later became a television host on Under 30 Dialogue, a youth-oriented television programme. In 2018, she was charged for unlawful protest against the Rohingya genocide, and was convicted in 2020. After organizing protests against the Tatmadaw in the wake of the 2021 coup d'état, she fled to the jungle and briefly joined an armed rebel group. She lives in exile in Thailand as of 2022, and runs the #Sisters2Sisters anti-wartime sexual violence campaign. She has received the Magnitsky Human Rights Award, and further honors from Women of the Future, the Obama Foundation, and the US Department of State.
Myanmar–South Korea relations are the bilateral relations between the Republic of the Union of Myanmar and the Republic of Korea. The two countries established their diplomatic relations on 16 May 1975.
