{"id":3919,"date":"2018-03-16T13:54:05","date_gmt":"2018-03-16T07:24:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/equalitymyanmar.org\/new-eng\/?p=3919"},"modified":"2026-01-28T11:00:21","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T04:30:21","slug":"myanmar-human-rights-defenders-honored-by-eu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/equalitymyanmar.org\/?p=3919","title":{"rendered":"Myanmar Human Rights Defenders Honored by EU"},"content":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0NYEIN NYEIN\u00a0<\/span>16 March 2018<\/p>\n

CHIANG MAI, Thailand \u2014 \u201cOne of the growing difficulties these days is intolerance and hostility toward different races and nationalities being cultivated as a political weapon\u2014a very potent as well as very dangerous political weapon I would say,\u201d said Ko Swe Win, the editor-in-chief of Myanmar Now.<\/p>\n

He is one of three human rights defenders along with Cheery Zahau and Daw Khin Than Htwe who received this year\u2019s Schuman Award for Human Rights from The European Union in Myanmar\u00a0on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Ko Swe Win said [in his speech], \u201cOnly the promotion of human rights can help us contain this deplorable trend. It\u2019s also quite important that we should not get too obsessed with different identities we grow up within our different geographical locations. Whether we identify ourselves as European or Indian or Christian or Buddhist, we should not forget that we all belong to the same human family.\u201d<\/p>\n

The EU\u2019s Schuman Award\u2014named after former French Foreign Minister and one of the founding fathers of the European Union Robert Schuman\u2014was established last year to recognize Myanmar citizens who are agents of change in their community.\u00a0Last year\u2019s recipients<\/a>\u00a0were U Aung Myo Min of Equality Myanmar, Janan Lahtaw of the Nyein (Shalom) Foundation and U Ko Ni, the slain lawyer of the National League for Democracy.<\/p>\n

EU ambassador Kristian Schmidt said in his opening remarks\u00a0at the award ceremony on Thursday night: \u201cThis year, we are proud to honor three Myanmar activists with the Schuman Award. They are the winners, but to all the activists, let me say this, activists and journalists fighting for human rights and freedom of expression are the backbone of democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added, \u201cWe need that courage, your courage, to hold government accountable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ambassadors from Germany, France and Denmark presented the medals to the recipients.<\/p>\n

Civil society groups and the press in Myanmar have been active agents of change in Myanmar\u2019s democratization process, which started under the former President U Thein Sein eight years ago. However, freedom of expression, the right to information and the right to be protected still remained challenged in the country.<\/p>\n

\"\"
<\/i>Daw Khin Than Htwe, Cheery Zahau and Ko Swe Win (front row, L to R) with the European Union ambassadors in Myanmar at the awards reception ceremony in Yangon on Mar. 15, 2018. \/European Union in Myanmar \/ Facebook<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The awardees emphasized that widespread human rights violations and safety for human rights defenders are still issues in the country, and highlighted that various difficulties faced by Myanmar and other countries stem from an absence of genuine democracy and human rights values.<\/p>\n

A former political prisoner who spent seven years in prison under the military regime, Ko Swe Win fights for press freedom and challenges wrongdoing in society.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are still unprotected under the law, as Myanmar does not have a healthy political system which hinders the improvement of the judiciary,\u201d Ko Swe Win told The Irrawaddy.<\/p>\n

His work revealing the abuse of domestic workers at the Ava tailor shop in 2016 raised public attention and brought justice to the victims.<\/p>\n

But because of his fight to defend human rights, he has been sued by a follower of the banned nationalist group Ma Ba Tha over an article posted on Facebook that criticized ultranationalist monk U Wirathu.<\/p>\n

Cheery Zahau, who has been a human rights advocate for 20 years, is the founder of the Women\u2019s League of Chinland and promotes gender equality and the empowerment of women through trainings that challenge patriarchal stereotypes. The ethnic Chin woman is also the\u00a0recipient of the UNDP N\u2019Peace award<\/a>\u00a0for 2017.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are in a very squeezed political environment and there are fewer and fewer of us,\u201d Cheery Zahau said in her speech regarding the work of the human rights activists, adding, \u201cWe need encouragement from all of you.\u201d<\/p>\n

The human rights defender added, \u201cI still strongly believe when human rights norms and standards are institutionalized in our political institutions, in our economic policies and programs, and in our social affairs; democracy will foster, prosperity will come and peace will be sustained.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another woman honored for her commitment to the advancement of women was Daw Khin Than Htwe. She is the chair of local civil society organization (CSO) Mon State Women and Children Upgrade Conduct Team in Moulmein, Mon State.<\/p>\n

She helps trafficking victims, women facing domestic violence,\u00a0and child victims<\/a>\u00a0of rape. She also empowers women through human rights and rule of law trainings in the communities and advocated for legal protections for women.<\/p>\n

Daw Khin Than Htwe said that the award proved that if CSOs worked for their communities, the world would recognize their efforts, adding that the recognition gave her the confidence and strength to continue her mission.<\/p>\n

The Irrawaddy News<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0NYEIN NYEIN\u00a016 March 2018 CHIANG MAI, Thailand \u2014 \u201cOne of the growing difficulties these days is intolerance and hostility toward different races and nationalities being cultivated as a political weapon\u2014a very potent as well as very dangerous political weapon I would say,\u201d said Ko Swe Win, the editor-in-chief of Myanmar Now. He is one of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3920,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/equalitymyanmar.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/equalitymyanmar.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/equalitymyanmar.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/equalitymyanmar.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/equalitymyanmar.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3919"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/equalitymyanmar.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3919\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3921,"href":"https:\/\/equalitymyanmar.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3919\/revisions\/3921"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/equalitymyanmar.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/equalitymyanmar.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/equalitymyanmar.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/equalitymyanmar.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}