Zaw Min Htut – Country Coordinator (Japan)
An ethnic Rohingya, Zaw Min Htut was born and raised in Maungdaw, Nothern Rakhine, Myanmar. He did his B.Sc (Hons) in Zoology at Sittwe University and completed the Part 1 of his M.Sc at Rangoon University where he became a democracy and human rights activist in 1988. Subsequently, he left Myanmar for Japan where he was granted refugee status due to his bona fide political activism and fear of persecution at home in Burma.
In his capacity as the founder of Rohingya Advocacy Network in Japan (RANJ), he campaigns in Japan to promote and protect Rohingya rights. Zaw Min Htut is the author of two books on Rohingyas, entitled “The Union of Burma and Ethnic Rohingyas” (in Burmese) on the Rohingya history and “Human Rights Violations and Discrimination against Rohingya” (in English) which documents their human rights situation of Rohingya people under various Burmese military regimes. For his remarkable endeavours to promote human rights for all and to defend the rights of Rohingyas, the US State Department shortlisted him as one of the three finalists for its Human Rights Defender Award in 2011.
