Naw K'nyaw Paw is a

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 ...

peace activist who works for women's rights in

Myanmar 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 C. Wells, Joh ...

. She is the General secretary of the Karen Women’s Organisation, and won an

International Women of Courage Award The International Women of Courage Award, also referred to as the U.S. Secretary of State's International Women of Courage Award, is an American award presented annually by the United States Department of State to women around the world who have ...

in 2019.

Biography

Naw K’nyaw Paw was born in

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...

and as a young child grew up in a refugee camp. Her family was forced to flee their home in order to escape persecution. The family joined approximately 110,000

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� ...

now living in seven refugee camps that run the length of the Thai- Burma border. In 1999, she began working for the Karen Women’s Organization (KWO), a community-based organization of Karen women working in development and relief in the refugee camps on the Thai border. She was elected as its General Secretary at the 6th Karen Women Organization Conference held in February 2013. She is a strong promoter of capacity buildings and has run many democracy, human rights and women rights trainings for KWO members. She worked hard to take the Karen struggle to the international community. Naw K’nyaw Paw has advocated on behalf of the Karen people. She has attended

UN Human Rights Council The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), CDH is a United Nations body whose mission is to promote and protect human rights around the world. The Council has 47 members elected for staggered three-year terms on a regional group basis. ...

and the Commission on the Status of Women meetings to raise concerns about the situation for women and indigenous and refugee rights in Burma and along the border.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Naw K'nyaw Paw Thai women activists Thai activists Thai human rights activists Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Recipients of the International Women of Courage Award