Ka Hsaw Wa (born 1970) is a Burmese
human rights
Human rights are Morality, moral principles or Social norm, normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for ce ...
activist. He is a member of the
Karen
Karen may refer to:
* Karen (name), a given name and surname
* Karen (slang), a term and meme for a demanding woman displaying certain behaviors
People
* Karen people, an ethnic group in Myanmar and Thailand
** Karen languages or Karenic l ...
indigenous
Indigenous may refer to:
*Indigenous peoples
*Indigenous (ecology), presence in a region as the result of only natural processes, with no human intervention
*Indigenous (band), an American blues-rock band
*Indigenous (horse), a Hong Kong racehorse ...
group. Along with his wife, environmental and human rights attorney
Katie Redford
Katharine "Katie" Redford (born March 7, 1968) is an American human rights lawyer and activist who is credited with spearheading a movement to hold international companies accountable for overseas abuse in their home court jurisdictions, and in doi ...
, he is the co-founder and co-director of
EarthRights International
EarthRights International (ERI) is an American nonprofit human rights and environmental organization founded in 1995 by Katie Redford, Ka Hsaw Wa, and Tyler Giannini.
Cases
* '' Doe v. Unocal Corp.''
* '' Wiwa v. Royal Dutch Shell Co.''
* '' Do ...
(ERI), an organization that focuses on human rights in Burma and other areas "where protection of human rights and the
environment
Environment most often refers to:
__NOTOC__
* Natural environment, all living and non-living things occurring naturally
* Biophysical environment, the physical and biological factors along with their chemical interactions that affect an organism or ...
is intrinsically connected."
Ka Hsaw Wa and Katie Redford have two young children.
Biography
Ka Hsaw Wa was born under a different name, which he keeps secret in order to protect his family in
Burma
Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...
. He has not seen his parents in over 15 years. He adopted the name "Ka Hsaw Wa", which means "the White Elephant", while in exile in the United States. White Elephants are traditionally thought of by the
Karen people
The Karen, kjp, ပ်ုဖၠုံဆိုဒ်, my, ကရင်လူမျိုး, , th, กะเหรี่ยง ( ), also known as the Kayin, Kariang or Kawthoolese, are an ethnolinguistic group of Sino-Tibetan language ...
as symbolizing righteousness and strength as well as a harbinger of great positive change.
Ka Hsaw Wa grew up in
Burma
Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...
as the son of a doctor and enjoyed relative economic privilege in his youth. However, when he entered college he soon became active in political causes, and quickly developed into a strong student leader. The Burmese government
attacked the students brutally in 1988, killing many. Ka Hsaw Wa was captured and
torture
Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons such as punishment, extracting a confession, interrogation for information, or intimidating third parties. Some definitions are restricted to acts c ...
d. He then left Burma, but re-entered the country in order to participate in a lengthy photographic campaign documenting environmental and indigenous destruction, as well as severe human rights abuses, including
starvation
Starvation is a severe deficiency in caloric energy intake, below the level needed to maintain an organism's life. It is the most extreme form of malnutrition. In humans, prolonged starvation can cause permanent organ damage and eventually, dea ...
,
systematic rape, and the destruction of entire villages. Most of the problems he documented were connected to the construction and operation of a
petroleum
Petroleum, also known as crude oil, or simply oil, is a naturally occurring yellowish-black liquid mixture of mainly hydrocarbons, and is found in geological formations. The name ''petroleum'' covers both naturally occurring unprocessed crud ...
pipeline
Pipeline may refer to:
Electronics, computers and computing
* Pipeline (computing), a chain of data-processing stages or a CPU optimization found on
** Instruction pipelining, a technique for implementing instruction-level parallelism within a s ...
in the area of
Yadana for the oil companies
Unocal
Union Oil Company of California, and its holding company Unocal Corporation, together known as Unocal was a major petroleum explorer and marketer in the late 19th century, through the 20th century, and into the early 21st century. It was headqu ...
(U.S.-based) and
Total S.A.
TotalEnergies SE is a French multinational integrated energy and petroleum company founded in 1924 and one of the seven supermajor oil companies. Its businesses cover the entire oil and gas chain, from crude oil and natural gas exploration and ...
(based in France).
Ka Hsaw Wa, Katie Redford and EarthRights launched a federal
lawsuit against Unocal, employing a unique legal strategy utilizing the U.S.
Alien Tort Statute
The Alien Tort Statute ( codified in 1948 as ; ATS), also called the Alien Tort Claims Act (ATCA), is a section in the United States Code that gives federal courts jurisdiction over lawsuits filed by foreign nationals for torts committed in viola ...
of 1789, which says that "federal courts have jurisdiction for torts that occur in violation of the
Law of Nations
International law (also known as public international law and the law of nations) is the set of rules, norms, and standards generally recognized as binding between states. It establishes normative guidelines and a common conceptual framework for ...
,
hich
Ij ( fa, ايج, also Romanized as Īj; also known as Hich and Īch) is a village in Golabar Rural District, in the Central District of Ijrud County, Zanjan Province, Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also ...
includes abuses of fundamental human rights
ndgenocide", in order to force the company to assume responsibility for human rights abuses caused by its actions. In the case
Unocal
Union Oil Company of California, and its holding company Unocal Corporation, together known as Unocal was a major petroleum explorer and marketer in the late 19th century, through the 20th century, and into the early 21st century. It was headqu ...
eventually agreed to pay compensation to the 15 anonymous villagers who suffered forced labor, rape, and the effects of killings. For about 30 years Ka Hsaw Wa has been recording people's stories to publish violation of human rights in his homeland.
Ka Hsaw Wa continues his front-line activism, and was featured in the 2006 film, ''
Total Denial
''Total Denial'' is a 2006 documentary film about fifteen Burmese villagers going up against oil giants UNOCAL and Total as they build the Yadana Pipeline.
External links
*
* Interview from ''Democracy Now!'' program, October 12, 2007
2006 ...
''. A description based on his role in the film is as follows:
"Ka Hsaw Wa dedicated his life to human rights activism, speaking fluent English and Burmese, dodging back and forth as he plays cat-and-mouse with the border guards, marrying another rights worker and even raising a family. All the while he is fighting to live and protect his homeland. At one point he describes how he was himself tortured. When he goes into difficult areas of the jungle, he takes a gun with a single bullet - to commit suicide if captured (to avoid torture)."
Ka Hsaw Wa and EarthRights are also involved in the current struggle for democracy and human rights in Burma, wherein a number of protesters, including monks, have been killed, and hundreds of protesters arrested. They are working to bring an end to the current violence against the people. In response to the 2007 protests, Ka Hsaw Wa has said:
"As someone who experienced this regime's brutality in 1988, I am glad that this time around, the world is watching. But that is not enough. The international community, including multinational corporations, must act now to prevent further bloodshed in Burma. The people have suffered profoundly for too long — they have already sacrificed so much, and they will not stop
Awards and recognition
*
Goldman Environmental Prize
The Goldman Environmental Prize is a prize awarded annually to grassroots environmental activists, one from each of the world's six geographic regions: Africa, Asia, Europe, Islands and Island Nations, North America, and South and Central America. ...
(1999)
*
Reebok Human Rights Award
The Reebok Human Rights Award honoured activists under the age of thirty who fought for human rights through non-violent means. Each year, the award was given to four or five individuals. Each received a grant of US $50,000 that was to be used to ...
(1999)
*
Whitley Award Winner (Human Rights & the Environment), sponsored by Sting and Trudie Styler (2004)
*
Ramon Magsaysay Award for Emergent Leadership (2009)
References
External links
* https://web.archive.org/web/20070824105325/http://www.earthrights.org/home.html
* https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20070923203221/http://www.totaldenialfilm.com/
* https://web.archive.org/web/20061001230830/http://www.theconnection.org/shows/2003/09/20030930_b_main.asp
* http://pbs.org/now/shows/345
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ka Hsaw Wa
Burmese democracy activists
Burmese human rights activists
Burmese people of Karen descent
Burmese pacifists
Burmese prisoners and detainees
Civil rights activists
Indigenous activists of Asia
Living people
Prisoners and detainees of Myanmar
Ramon Magsaysay Award winners
1970 births
Goldman Environmental Prize awardees