About the Speaker
Zoya
Phan
Burmese human rights activist and author
Zoya Phan is a Burmese human rights activist and author. After fleeing Than Shwe’s military dictatorship and claiming asylum as a refugee in the United Kingdom, Phan has worked to expose the junta’s repression. She is the campaign manager for the Burma Campaign UK (BCUK). She also created and is the director of the Phan Foundation to promote the education, human rights, and culture of the Karen ethnic minority in Burma. In 2009, she published “Undaunted: My Struggle for Freedom and Survival in Burma.” In 2010, she was honored as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. In 2017, she was denied a visa to return to Burma to attend an unveiling of a statue of her late father, Padoh Mahn Sha Lah Phan, on the ninth anniversary of his death.