Ma Hnin
Ma Hnin, the self-styled International Beggar, grew up in Mawlamyine in Burma’s Mon State, was sent to refugee camps on the Thai–Burmese border, and eventually arrived in Melbourne as a refugee with her family aged 12. After school she trained as a professional chef, returning to Myanmar in 2014, where she created safe-spaces for a newly-emerging youth culture including bar+restaurant Father’s Office, and a community art-space and cultural hub. In April 2021, she moved to Bangkok to create a landing space In-Exile to help fleeing critical voices find support to get restarted in a foreign land.
From the exiled community of young Burmese creatives, Ma Hnin founded A NEW BURMA, running an evolving collaborative exhibition touring major cities around the world, amplifying the messages of artists and critical voices so bravely standing up for a future inclusive of all who would call Myanmar home. As Oakkahta of A NEW BURMA, Ma Hnin uses her platform to tell the stories of a new generation of Burmese creatives, seeking to legitimise the voice of the youth, those who refuse to be dictated to by the @TATMADAW army ever again.
Human rights defenders in Myanmar are subjected to a range of attacks and abuses. They include serious human rights violations against ethnic minorities; the harassment and imprisonment of human rights defenders for their exercise of civil and political rights; reports of torture, ill-treatment, lack of access to health care and solitary confinement of human rights defenders while they were in detention; extra-judicial killings and violence, discrimination, surveillance, legislative and judicial harassment, all of which continued unabated. HRDs working on civil and political rights, minority rights and economic, social and cultural rights, including land rights, are particularly at risk of being targeted.
Self-censorship in connection with government and military officials is widespread amongst civil society, while the authorities continue to exert pressure on the media. For years, human rights defenders highlighting violations by the military have faced high risks, including arrest, detention, imprisonment, and torture. In the last two years, internet blackouts have become more common, affecting more than a million mostly ethnic Rakhine people. To add to this, those who have been protesting these moves have been targeted and falsely charged. Other groups of defenders who face high risks include journalists, land and environmental defenders, women rights defenders, students, and community members in conflict affected areas.
