Biographies of Experts and Speakers

Panel of Experts

Mr. Nurkholis is the Vice-Chair of the Indonesian National Human Rights Commission, Komnas HAM. Since 2007, he has been entrusted with the task of monitoring and investigation human rights cases submitted to Komnas HAM. He formerly served as the Director of Walhi South Sumatra, Director of LBH Palembang, Chairman of the National Council of Walhi and Vice Chairman of the Election Supervisory Committee in South Sumatra and DPC IKADIN in Palembang.

Dr. Decha Tangseefa is a Lecturer in Political Science at Thammasat University in Bangkok, Thailand. During 2008-2011, he also spent time teaching at a college in a “temporary shelter area” along the Thai-Burmese border zones. He is leading an umbrella research project entitled Streams of Knowledge along the Thai-Burmese Border Zones: Multiple Dimensions of People, Capital and Culture, involving researchers from five countries.

Ms. Wathshlah G. Naidu is a Malaysian women’s human rights activist. Currently she is part of the advocacy and capacity building programme at the International Women’s Rights Action Watch Asia Pacific (IWRAW Asia Pacific) and has been involved in the advocacy around the establishment of the ASEAN human rights mechanisms. Prior to joining IWRAW Asia Pacific, she worked for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), both in Malaysia and Hong Kong. Her focus has been primarily on law reform and advocacy on the issues related to women’s human rights using the framework of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and other international human rights and humanitarian laws. Her areas of expertise are around the issues of violence against women and children, Muslim women’s rights and rights of migrant domestic workers as well as focus on international refugee law and protection and sexual and gender based violence against asylum seekers/refugees.

Other Speakers

Saw Kweh Say is a human rights activist from Karen State, Burma. He was born in 1973 when the military regime had just implemented the Four Cuts Policy. When he was one year old, his village was destroyed and his father was killed by the Burma Army. He survived with his mother and sister as Internally Displaced Persons until entering Hway Kloke refugee camp in Thailand in 1984. While living in the refugee camp, Kweh Say returned to Burma several times, where he saw that the situation had not improved since he fled. This encouraged him to begin working to document human rights violations in Karen communities.

Nyi Nyi Aung is an activist and former political prisoner from Burma. At the age of 18, he was detained in 1988 for his role as a leading organizer in the All Burma Students Democratic Movement Organization (Makada). After the military regime’s brutal crackdown on the 1988 uprising, Nyi Nyi fled to the Thai-Burma border before eventually being resettled as a political refugee in the United States in 1994. In 2009, Nyi Nyi was arrested at the Rangoon airport as he tried to enter the country. He was detained for 6 months where he was mentally and physically tortured. Nyi Nyi continues his work as an activist both on the Thai-Burma border and in the United States.

Ma Khin Ohmar is the Coordinator of Burma Partnership and the Task Force on ASEAN Burma. She was a student activist in the nationwide pro-democracy uprising in 1988. After the military’s crackdown, Khin Ohmar fled to the Thai-Burma border, alongside fellow activists including Nyi Nyi. She continues to work from the Thai-Burma border for democracy and peace in Burma by engaging in public advocacy to promote awareness on the situation in the country and mobilizing the international community and ASEAN’s support for Burma’s struggle for democracy.

Mr. Agus Widjojo is the Chairman of the National Institute for Democratic Governance. Former General Agus Widjojo was previously the Commandant of the Defense Force Command and Staff College, before being assigned Chief of Staff for Territorial Affairs to the Commanding General of Tentara Nasional Indonesia. His last military service before entering his retirement in 2003 was as Deputy Speaker of the People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR), representing the Military and National Police Faction.

Ms. Eva Kusuma Sundari is a Member of the Indonesian House of Representatives with the Indonesia Democratic Party for Struggle (PDIP) and the President of ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus (AIPMC).

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