Wai Wai Nu
“Human rights are for everyone. Human rights are everybody’s responsibility.”
Wai Wai Nu is the current visiting scholar at the HRC. Graduating from Berkeley Law in 2018, she is now using the resources at the HRC to further her work on the Rohingya crisis.
Nu's family is Rohingya, a Muslim minority in Burma, and has a history of advocacy. In 1990, Nu's father was elected to parliament, receiving harrassment for promoting labor rights. He was eventually setenced to 47 years in prison for "alleged state security and immigration violations" in 2005. Soon after, Nu and the rest of her family were given 17-year sentences under the same allegations.
Upon being released in 2012, Nu set out to fix Burma's legal system. After receiving her law degree, she established the Women’s Peace Network-Arakan and later co-founded Justice for women, a network of female lawyers that promotes democracy- and peace-building efforts. Her soared after initiating the #MyFriend campaign. This campaign urged participants to post photos of themselves with friends from diverse backgrounds in order to counter the widespread descrimination and hate on social media.
Here is Nu giving a brief Human Rights Day message:
Past Visiting Scholars
2015-2016
Noah Novogrodsky, Professor of Law and Co-director of the Center for International Human Rights Law and Advocacy, University of Wyoming College of Law.
Novogrodsky co-authored (with Ruth N. Borenstein and Marc A. Hearron) “Same Sex Marriage Without Borders: The Foreign and Comparative Law Amicus Brief in Obergefell v. Hodges,” in the California International Law Journal 23, no. 2 (Winter 2015).
2015
Leila Ullrich, D.Phil candidate, Centre for Criminology, University of Oxford
Rebecca Wexler, J.D. candidate, Yale Law School
Wexler authored “Convicted by Code,” in Slate’s Future Tense blog, October 6, 2015.
The article was soon cited by the ABA Journal, Ars Technica, and the Daily Dot.
2014
Elizabeth Evenson, Senior counsel, International Justice Program, Human Rights Watch
2008
Aung Kyaw Soe conducted research on human rights abuses in his native Burma.
2004-5
Theoneste Rutagengwa, Rwandan activist, Visiting Scholar, University of Wisconsin-Madison
2001-02
Caroline Clara Lamwaka, journalist for the New Vision newspaper in Kampala, Uganda.
Nomfundo Walaza, clinical psychologist, and former Chief Executive Officer of The Desmond Tutu Peace Centre in Cape Town, South Africa.
Natalie Hill, attorney, Australia
Laurie Vollen, Founder and Executive Director, Life After Exoneration.
2000-01
Joseph Nevins, Associate Professor of Geography, Vassar College
Susana Kaiser, Associate Professor of Media Studies and Latin American Studies, University of San Francisco.
