The Rohingya people, of Burma, may be the most oppressed people on Earth. Muslims hailing from Burma’s westernmost Arakan province, Rohingyas are denied citizenship and the most basic rights democracy might afford. In 2015, thousands of Rohingyas fled Burma by boat to escape persecution and dire living conditions, triggering an international humanitarian crisis.

Wai Wai Nu, a 29-year-old human rights activist, works to secure rights for her Rohingya people and to improve relations among Burma’s ethnic groups. Two organizations she has founded provide services to Burma’s vulnerable female population. Since her release, in 2012, from seven years of political imprisonment, Wai Wai has been named among BBC’s “100 Top Women” and received the Democracy Courage Tribute Award from the World Movement for Democracy.

In summer 2016, Wai Wai joined pro-democracy leaders and activists from around the world to participate in the Draper Hills Summer Fellows program at Stanford’s Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law (CDDRL).

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