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Razia Sultana, a 2019 winner of the US State Department's International Women of Courage Award, addresses the NUPGE 2019 Convention on the Rohingya crisis
Speaker's Biography - Razia Sultana
Razia Sultana is a lawyer, human rights advocate, researcher and educator specializing in sexual violence (specifically mass rape), trauma, state violence, and the trafficking of Rohingya girls and women.
She is a recipient of the 2019 International Women of Courage Award from the United States Department of State. It is awarded to women around the world who have shown leadership, courage, resourcefulness, and willingness to sacrifice for others, especially in promoting women's rights.
Since 2014, she has spoken out for the rights of her people, and worked with some of the 725,000 Rohingya refugees in refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. As a volunteer researcher for Kaladan Press, an independent news service focusing on Myanmar and Rohingya-related issues, she has fearlessly documented the stories of those victimized by waves of government and army violence in Myanmar.
Razia was born in Myanmar but raised in Bangladesh. She’s a member of the Free Rohingya Coalition, director of the Women’s Section in the Arakan Rohingya National Organization and founder of Rohingya Women Welfare Society, a grassroots organization working in local refugee camps. In April 2018, she spoke before the UN Security Council’s Open Debate on Sexual Violence in Conflict.