Ywet Nu Aung (Burmese: ရွက်နုအောင်; born c. 1979) is a Burmese human rights lawyer known for taking on legal challenges against Buddhist nationalists. She was a member of the Mandalay Region's Central Executive Committee of the National League for Democracy and the party's legal adviser.[1]
Ywet Nu Aung | |
|---|---|
ရွက်နုအောင် | |
| Born | c. 1979 (age 44–45) Mandalay, Myanmar |
| Occupation | Lawyer |
| Notable work | Naypyidaw Victoria rape case |
Career
editIn 2017, Ywet Nu Aung represented Swe Win, editor-in-chief of Myanmar Now, in a defamation lawsuit filed by supporters of Wirathu. As a result of working on Swe Win's case, she was threatened both online and physically by members of a Buddhist nationalist group Ma Ba Tha.[2][3]
In 2019, she gained prominence after representing the family of a toddler who was sexually assaulted at a private primary school in Naypyitaw. In response to this case, there was a wide-ranging investigation and lawsuit that quickly garnered national attention.[4][3][5] Ywet Nu Aung was named in The Irrawaddy's "Ten Myanmar Women Who Inspired Us in 2020" for her "outstanding legal work".[6]
In the aftermath of the coup d'état in Myanmar in 2021, she represented a number of prominent arrested politicians. She was a member of the legal defense team for detained State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, National League for Democracy (NLD) patron Win Htein, and former Mandalay Region Chief Minister Zaw Myint Maung who was arrested on multiple charges.[7][8][9]
Following a court hearing in Obo Prison for Zaw Myint Maung's case, Ywet Nu Aung was arrested by the military junta on 27 April 2022.[10] She was convicted of violating Section 50 (J) of the Counter-Terrorism Act for allegedly providing financial support to the People’s Defense Force (PDF). The junta-controlled court sentenced her to 15 years in prison with hard labor on 27 December 2022.[11]
In May 2024, she was the prizewinner of the Ludovic Trarieux International Human Rights Prize for 2024.[12]
References
edit- ^ "Lawyer facing life sentence on terror charges sent to Obo Prison". Myanmar Now. 27 May 2022. Retrieved 15 January 2023.
- ^ "ကိုဆွေဝင်းရှေ့နေ ခြိမ်းခြောက်ခံရမှု တရားရုံးမသိ". RFA (in Burmese). 18 December 2019. Retrieved 21 January 2023.
- ^ a b "Myanmar junta detains prominent Mandalay-based lawyer representing ousted NLD chief minister". Myanmar Now. 29 April 2022. Retrieved 15 January 2023.
- ^ Nyan Hlaing Lin Moe Oo (6 May 2020). "ဗစ်တိုးရီးယားမိသားစုပါ ၆ ဦးကို ကျောင်းကြီးကြပ်ရေးမှူးကဖွင့်သည့်အမှု ရဲပိတ်သိမ်း". Myanmar Now (in Burmese). Retrieved 21 January 2023.
- ^ "Justice denied as regime targets activists' lawyers". Frontier Myanmar. 30 August 2022. Retrieved 15 January 2023.
- ^ San Yamin Aung (30 December 2020). "Ten Myanmar Women Who Inspired Us in 2020". The Irrawaddy. Retrieved 15 January 2023.
- ^ "Detained NLD Lawyer Being Held at Myanmar Military Base". The Irrawaddy. 17 May 2022. Retrieved 15 January 2023.
- ^ "Myanmar's Lawyers Face Increasing Junta Threats". The Irrawaddy. 3 November 2022. Retrieved 15 January 2023.
- ^ "Junta sentences prominent Myanmar lawyer to 15 years in prison". Myanmar Now. 29 December 2022. Retrieved 15 January 2023.
- ^ "တရားလွှတ်တော် ရှေ့နေ ဒေါ်ရွက်နုအောင် ဖမ်းဆီးခံရ". BBC Burmese (in Burmese). 28 April 2022. Retrieved 21 January 2023.
- ^ "Obo Prison Court sentences prominent Mandalay lawyer to 15 years". DVB. 29 December 2022. Retrieved 15 January 2023.
- ^ "L'avocate birmane Ywet Nu Aung lauréate du Prix Ludovic Trarieux". L’Orient-Le Jour. 25 May 2024.