Displaced: A Rohingya Family’s Struggle for Freedom in Myanmar | Wai Wai Nu

Wai Wai Nu was born in Rakhine State, located on the western coast of Myanmar where most Rohingya reside. A predominantly Buddhist country, the Rohingya are a Muslim minority in Myanmar who have been rendered stateless since 1982. Through the lens of a young woman whose family was imprisoned and displaced to internment camps, this episode unravels the ongoing conflict in Myanmar and the military crackdown on Rohingya civilians.

Ongoing violence against the Rohingya has resulted in the fastest refugee outflow since the Rwandan genocide, with over 742,000 Rohingya fleeing to neighboring Bangladesh.

This episode dives into the problematic citizenship laws of Myanmar and the allegations of atrocities against the Rohingya, which many in the international community are calling a crime of genocide. On the podcast, we also discuss statelessness, its causes, and the important action required to prevent human rights abuses.

Featuring policy and advocacy insights from experts: Ambassador David Scheffer, Visiting Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and Matthew Smith, CEO and Co-Founder at Fortify Rights.

The Elders Special Segment Guest: Ban Ki-moon, Former UN Secretary-General and Deputy Chair of The Elders.

Host: Hazami Barmada, Founder and CEO, Humanity Lab Foundation.

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FOR ADDITIONAL LEARNING ON THIS TOPIC, view our free educational toolkit and "policy deep-dive" document. We invite you to use this episode/toolkit for continued learning, advocacy and activism.

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Speaker Biographies:

WAI WAI NU is a Former Political Prisoner, Rohingya Activist & Founder of the Women's Peace Network

Wai Wai Nu is a former political prisoner and the founder and Executive Director of the Women Peace Network in Myanmar. She spent seven years as a political prisoner in Burma. Since her release from prison in 2012, Nu has dedicated herself to working for democracy and human rights, particularly on behalf of marginalized women and members of her ethnic group, the Rohingya. Through the Women Peace Network, Nu works to build peace and mutual understanding between Myanmar’s ethnic communities and to empower and advocate for the rights of marginalized women throughout Myanmar, and particularly in Rakhine State. Her work also aims to reduce discrimination and hatred among Buddhist and Muslim communities and to improve the human rights of the Rohingya people through documentation, convenings and policy advocacy among key leaders in Myanmar and high-level international fora.  To engage youth in the peacebuilding process, Nu founded the Yangon Youth Center – a space where young people from diverse backgrounds can come together to learn, share, and explore their ideas and promote leadership in social, political, and peace-building. Nu organized the My Friend Campaign with youth from different communities to promote tolerance and to reduce discrimination among diverse groups. Through her work, she has been recognized as a Champion of Prevention by the United Nation’s Office of the Prevention of Genocide and Responsibility to Protect. In 2014, Nu Co-Founded Justice for Women in Yangon, a legal and advocacy organization that works with victims of gender-based violence and provides pro-bono legal consultation. Nu is the recipient of N-Peace Awards (2014),; Democracy Courage Tributes, World Movement for Democracy(2015); Hillary Rodham Clinton award in (2018),; Impact Hero (2019). Nu was named as a Young Global Leader by World Economic Forum; among "100 Top Women", BBC (2014); among 100 inspiring women, Salt Magazine (2016),; among 100 World Thinkers, Foreign Policy Magazine (2015); Next Generation Leader, Time Magazine (2017).; Women of the Year, Financial Times (2018); One of the 16 Women Fighting For Fairness in Asia, Tatler (2020). Nu received her bachelor’s degree in law from the University of Yangon in Myanmar and her master’s degree in law from the University of Berkeley. She previously served as a visiting scholar with the Human Rights Centre at the University of Berkeley and the University of Michigan’s Center for the Education of Women and as an Obama Foundation Scholar at Columbia University of New York. Nu was also a Scholar at the Bush Institute, Liberty and Leadership Forum and Draper Hills Summer Fellow at Stanford University’s CDDRL. Currently, Nu is serving as a fellow at the Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide, U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. Twitter: @waiwainu, @WomensPeaceNW, @womenspeacenetwork

DAVID SCHEFFER is Former U.S. Ambassador at Large for War Crimes Issues, is a Senior Visiting Fellow of the Council on Foreign Relations, and Vice-President of the American Society of International Law.

David Scheffer is a Visiting Senior Fellow of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Tom A. Bernstein Genocide Prevention Fellow at the Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide, U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, and Vice-President of the American Society of International Law. He is Clinical Professor Emeritus and Director Emeritus of the Center for International Human Rights of Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law. Scheffer was the first U.S. Ambassador at Large for War Crimes Issues (1997-2001) and was instrumental in the creation of five international criminal tribunals during the 1990s, recounted in his award-winning book, "All the Missing Souls: A Personal History of the War Crimes Tribunals" (2012). His latest book is "The Sit Room: In the Theater of War and Peace" (2019) about decision-making in the Situation Room of the White House during the Bosnian war of the early 1990s when Amb. Scheffer was on the Deputies Committee of the National Security Council. Amb. Scheffer received the 2020 Dr. Jean Mayer Global Citizenship Award of Tufts University, the 2018 Champion of Justice Award of the Center for Justice and Accountability, and the 2013 Berlin Prize of the American Academy in Berlin. He was one of Foreign Policy Magazine's "Top Global Thinkers of 2011." Twitter: @CFR_org

MATTHEW SMITH is CEO and Co-Founder of Fortify Rights and a Fellow at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard University

Matthew Smith is co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Fortify Rights. Matthew previously worked with Human Rights Watch, EarthRights International, Kerry Kennedy of Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, and as a community organizer and emergencies social worker in the United States. In 2019, he became a Fellow at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and he was a 2014 Echoing Green Global Fellow. Matthew's work has exposed genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, multi-billion-dollar corruption, and other human rights violations. He has authored dozens of human rights reports and written for the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, TIME, the Guardian, and other outlets. He has an M.A. in Human Rights and Religion from Columbia University and a B.A. in Political Science from Le Moyne College.Twitter: @matthewfsmith, @FortifyRights

BAN KI-MOON is Former United Nations Secretary-General and Deputy Chair of The Elders, an independent group of global leaders founded by Nelson Mandela in 2007, who work together for peace, justice and human rights

Ban Ki-moon was the UN Secretary-General from 2007-2016. He mobilized world leaders around a new set of challenges and sought to give voice to the world’s poorest and vulnerable people. He put Sustainable Development Goals, climate change, and equality for girls and women at the top of the UN agenda; creating UN Women and securing the Paris Agreement. He is a former South-Korean Foreign Minister and diplomat. He is the Chair of the Global Green Growth Institute, Chairman of the Boao Forum for Asia, Commissioner of The Global Commission on Adaptation, and Co-Chair of the Ban Ki-moon Centre for Global Citizens.

HAZAMI BARMADA is the Founder & CEO of Humanity Lab Foundation and co-Executive Producer & Host

Finding Humanity Podcast. Hazami is a social entrepreneur, thought leader, and public affairs and social impact expert recognized by Forbes as an “inspirational agent of change.” She has consulted for many leading global brands including the United Nations, United Nations Foundation, Aspen Institute, and the Royal Court of the Sultanate of Oman. Among her posts at the United Nations, she served as the Coordinator for the United Nations Secretary General's World Humanitarian Summit, an Advisor to the first-ever United Nations Secretary-General's Youth Envoy, as a member of the United Nations SDG Strategy Hub for the launch of the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda. Hazami has a Masters from Harvard University where she was an Edward S. Mason Fellow in Public Policy and Management. She studied social and public policy at Georgetown University and has a BA in Anthropology and Sociology. Twitter: @hazamibarmada

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