Charm Tong: Voices of Change
Burma
In 1999, when Charm Tong was 17, she stood before the United Nations Commission on Human Rights and described what was happening in her home country. Burma’s military regime was conducting a campaign of terror against the civilians in the Shan region, where many of Burma’s ethnic people live. Charm Tong’s audience that day included representatives of the Burmese military regime. They watched her as she described the atrocities they were committing against the people of Burma.
Since that day, Charm Tong has traveled the world to tell the story of the ongoing violence and oppression the people of Burma endure. She co-founded SWAN, the Shan Women’s Action Network, which attracted global attention in 2002 when it released a ground-breaking report, “License to Rape,” detailing how the Burmese military uses rape as a weapon against the women and girls of Burma. Charm Tong also helped establish a school for Shan State youth who have fled Burma but, because they haven’t been recognized by the United Nations as refugees, are denied access to refugee camps in Thailand.
Charm Tong has received numerous awards for her activism, including the Reebok Human Rights Award and recognition from Time Magazine and Marie Claire. She has addressed the United Nations several times, and was invited to the White House by President George W. Bush to discuss human rights and the future of Burma.
Her students call her “a candle in the dark.” She would probably call herself, more simply, a storyteller. “The regime does not want the world to know what’s happening to the people,” she says. “But the women’s voices will be heard.”
In Spring of 2008, Vital Voices recognized Charm Tong's strength and courage by honoring her with the 2008 Human Rights Global Leadership Awards on behalf of the women of Burma.
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