TIME
By Wai Wai Nu
December 11, 2019
Wai Wai Nu, human rights activist from Burma and spokes person for the country's Rohingya minority, speaks at the opening press conference of the 2017 Oslo Freedom Forum on May 22 2017 at the Intercontinental Hotel in central Oslo.Julia Reinhart—NurPhoto via Getty Images
Wai Wai Nu is a Rohingya activist, former
political prisoner, and founder of the Women Peace Network in Myanmar.
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 own ethnic group, the minority
Rohingya population. Originally from Rakhine state, Myanmar, she was named as a TIME Next Generation Leader in 2017, and is currently studying at Columbia University as an Obama Foundation scholar. This week, Nu is present at the International Court of Justice, the U.N.’s highest court, in The Hague, the Netherlands for
hearings in a landmark case claiming Myanmar has violated the 1948
convention on the prevention and punishment of the crime of genocide.
Myanmar’s de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, is leading the country’s
defense and said Wednesday that “genocidal intent cannot be the only conclusion.”
