(D.C., September 13, 2023)—On September 13, 2023, Fortify Rights supported Lucky Karim, a Rohingya woman human rights defender, to speak before the U.S. Congress about her experiences facing atrocity crimes in Myanmar and her experience as a refugee in Bangladesh. Lucky Karim provided her testimony to the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission during a Congressional hearing on human rights in Myanmar. During her testimony, Lucky Karim called on the U.S. government to improve protections for refugees in the Cox’s Bazar District refugee camps in Bangladesh and support the right to nationality for Rohingya in Myanmar.
Fortify Rights supported Lucky Karim’s visit to Washington, D.C. and recommended her as a speaker to the Lantos Commission.
To bring further attention to the hearing and testimony provided by Myanmar women human rights defenders, on September 22, 2023, Fortify Rights published a film highlighting the testimonies of Aye Chan Mon and Lucky Karim during a hearing.
Earlier in July 2023, The Diplomat published an op-ed by Lucky Karim entitled “6 Years Without Books: A Lost Generation of Rohingya Youth,” highlighting the lack of education for Rohingya refugee youth in Bangladesh and advocating for greater protection of refugees from Myanmar. Fortify Rights helped facilitate the placement of the op-ed and later supported her in translating it into the Thai language for publication with Prachatai, a Thai news website, on August 29, 2023.