SEA FoRB II
Southeast Asia Freedom of Religion or Belief
Dr. Nguyen Dinh Thang
Speakers
Kristin Storaker
Background
Kristin Storaker is a human rights advisor at Stefanus Alliance, a faith-based human rights organization with a focus on international freedom of religion or belief (FoRB), based in Oslo, Norway. She works with the promotion and protection of FoRB, especially for religious minorities under pressure, most recently in Myanmar and India. Prior to joining Stefanus Alliance, Storaker has worked with community development in South America and international affairs from an internship at the Norwegian Embassy in Stockholm. Storaker holds a Bachelor of Arts in Social Sciences from the University of Oslo (2009) and a Master of Science in International Public Policy from University College London (2011).
Background
President of the Republic (2007-2012), Prime Minister (2006-2007), Senior Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs (2001-2006) was born on 26 December, 1949, in Dili, Timor-Leste.
After leaving elected public office in 2012, Ramos-Horta served as UN Under-Secretary-General and Special Representative for Guinea-Bissau (2013-2014) and more recently as Chair of the High Level Independent Panel in UN Peace Operations. He was widely praised in both UN assignments.
Since September 2014 he has been a Co-Chair of the Independent Commission on Multilateralism, a program of the NY-based International Peace Building Institute.
In December 1996 José Ramos-Horta and Bishop Carlos Belo were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for “their work towards a just and peaceful solution to the conflict in Timor-Leste”.
In December 1999 Ramos-Horta returned to his homeland for the first time in almost 24 years. Thousands of Timorese crowded the airport and the seaside promenade of Dili to cheer him home.
Ramos-Horta is recipient of numerous prestigious international awards and 20 Doctor Honoris CAUSA from Universities in USA, Brazil, Portugal, Japan, Korea, Thailand, The Philippines, Australia.
Amb. (ret'd) Grover Joseph Rees
Background
Dr. Thang arrived in the United States in 1979 as a boat refugee from Vietnam. In 1988 he joined BPSOS and became its volunteer Executive Director two years later. In 1995 he launched an advocacy campaign that resulted in the resettlement of over 18,000 former boat people from Vietnam. In 1997 he initiated a long-term effort to build capacity for the Vietnamese-American community. He has since built BPSOS from a small, all-volunteer organization into a national one with operation in 14 different locations nationwide and 4 locations in Asia, and a vast mass media network. Simultaneously he has mentored over 50 faith-based and community organizations and secured $4 million to support their good work. In 2001 he left his engineering profession to fully dedicate his time to humanitarian causes.
Background
Grover Joseph Rees, a native and resident of Louisiana, served as the first United States Ambassador to East Timor from 2002 to 2006. From October 2006 until January 2009 Ambassador Rees served as Special Representative for Social Issues in the U.S. Department of State. He was responsible for promoting human dignity, including issues affecting vulnerable persons and the family, within the United Nations system.
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From 1995 until 2002 Rees was a senior staff member on the Foreign Affairs Committee in the United States House of Representatives, where he was responsible for human rights and refugee protection and played a major role in the drafting and enactment of important human rights legislation including the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, the International Religious Freedom Act, and the Torture Victims Relief Act. Rees also served as General Counsel of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (1991-93), as Chief Justice of the High Court of American Samoa (1986-1991), and as Special Counsel to the Attorney General of the United States (1985-86).
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Tina Mufford
Background
Kristin Storaker is a human rights advisor at Stefanus Alliance, a faith-based human rights organization with a focus on international freedom of religion or belief (FoRB), based in Oslo, Norway. She works with the promotion and protection of FoRB, especially for religious minorities under pressure, most recently in Myanmar and India. Prior to joining Stefanus Alliance, Storaker has worked with community development in South America and international affairs from an internship at the Norwegian Embassy in Stockholm. Storaker holds a Bachelor of Arts in Social Sciences from the University of Oslo (2009) and a Master of Science in International Public Policy from University College London (2011).
Background
Tina L. Mufford is Senior Policy Analyst at the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom where she has worked on the East Asia-Pacific portfolio – including Burma, China, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, North Korea, and Vietnam – since 2014. Previously, she served as deputy director for Asia at the non-profit, non-partisan International Republican Institute (IRI), overseeing freedom and democracy programs throughout 12 countries regionally.
Her global experience at IRI includes serving as a rapporteur at The Sixth Assembly of the World Movement for Democracy held in Jakarta, Indonesia in April 2010 and as an international election observer in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. Before joining IRI, Ms. Mufford spent eight years working in the U.S. House of Representatives, primarily for former Representative Thomas M. Reynolds (New York), gaining experience in the areas of international relations, health care, trade, financial services, and parliamentary procedure. Ms. Mufford holds a Master of Science in Comparative Politics (Democracy) from the London School of Economics and Political Science and has a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Binghamton University.
Datuk Dr. Denison
Jayasooria
Background
Datuk Dr Denison Jayasooria is the Principal Research Fellow, Institute of Ethnic Studies, National University of Malaysia (UKM). Is also Secretary General, PROHAM-Society for the Promotion of Human Rights Malaysia.
He served as a Human Rights Commissioner with the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (SUHAKAM) from 2006 -2010. His recent publication is "Strengthening Religious Freedom in the ASEAN Region: Lessons from Malaysia" (KITA-UKM, 2016).
He holds a PhD in sociology from Oxford Brookes University, UK in 1996.
Saman Zia-Zarifi
Background
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Before joining as Regional Director, Asia and Pacific at International Commission of Jurists, Mr. Zia-Zarifi served as Amnesty International’s director for Asia and the Pacific from 2008 to 2012. He was at Human Rights Watch after 2000, where he was deputy director of the Asia division. He was Senior Research Fellow at Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands, from 1997 to 2000.
He has written widely on the impact of multinational corporations and economic globalization on human rights, including Liability of Multinational Corporations for Violating International Law (co-edited with Menno Kamminga, 2000). Mr. Zia-Zarifi practiced as a corporate litigator in Los Angeles after graduating from Cornell Law School in 1993.
He was born and raised in Tehran, Iran, and received a BA from Cornell University in 1990 and an LL. M. in Public International Law from New York University School of Law in 1997.
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Benedict Rogers
Background
Benedict Rogers is the East Asia Team Leader at Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), where he specialises in research and advocacy on freedom of religion and wider human rights in Burma, Indonesia and North Korea and oversees work on China, Vietnam and Laos. He has also worked on Timor-Leste, Pakistan and Sri Lanka in the past.
He authored four books, including Burma: A Nation at the Crossroads (2012, Random House) and Than Shwe: Unmasking Burma’s Tyrant (2010, Silkworm Books), co-authored two books, including The Very Stones Cry Out: The Persecuted Church – Pain, Passion, Praise (2011, Continuum) and On the Side of the Angels: Justice, Human Rights and Kingdom Mission (2007, Authentic), and authored several major reports.
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He is a regular contributor to international media, including The Wall Street Journal, The International Herald Tribune,The Huffington Post, The Guardian and The Catholic Herald, and has appeared on BBC, CNN, Sky and al-Jazeera. He speaks at conferences and universities around the world. Ben has an MA in China Studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), and a BA in Modern History and Politics from Royal Holloway College, University of London.
The Hon. José Ramos-Horta
Rev. Y Hin Nie
Background
Reverend Y Hin Nie is Pastor at United Montagnard Christian Church, Greensboro, North Carolina.
After South Vietnam fell to the Communists, Pastor Y Hin Nie led four hundreds of his Montagnard Christian followers into the jungle for sanctuary, where they could freely practice their Christian religion. Seventeen years later, Pastor Y Hin Nie and his Montagnard followers surrendered to the UN peacekeeping forces that had entered Cambodia. They were quickly resettled to North Carolina, which already had a large community of Montagnards.
Pastor Y Hin Nie has been a tireless advocate for the rights of Montagnards. He has testified multiple times before the U.S. Congress. He is currently pursuing his PhD in Theology at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia.
Ed Brown
Background
Ed Brown is Senior Advisor at the Norwegian Helsinki Committee and Leader of the Norwegian Secretariat of the International Panel of Parliamentarians for Freedom of Religion or Belief.
Formerly Head of Department, Human Rights and Freedom of Religion or Belief at Stefanus Alliance International, his work entails teaching and facilitating seminars, workshops and conferences on the topics of Freedom of Religion or Belief and Human Rights. Ed engages in lobby and advocacy work with grassroots religious and other civil society leaders as well as top political leaders.
His fields of interest are: Human Rights, Freedom of Religion or Belief, Minority Rights, Religious Nationalism, Identity Politics, Islam, Hinduism and issues related to caste discrimination as well as broader rule of law and good governance issues. In addition, Ed is interested in building organizational capacity, good pedagogical approaches and inspiring communication.
Ed’s educational background is varied. He has a B.A. in Psychology from Pacific Lutheran University, a California Teaching Credential from Concordia University, Irvine, a major in religion from MF Norwegian School of Theology, a certificate of completion in International Human Rights Law from the Summer school at the University of Oxford and is currently working on his Master’s thesis in Religion, Society and Global Issues.
Khin Ohmar
Background
Khin Ohmar was a university student activists involved in organizing the well known 8888 pro-democracy uprising in 1988. She came to the Thailand-Burma border after the military crackdown on the peaceful demonstrations killing more than 3,000 protesters. She is an advocate regionally and internationally on the situation of human rights and struggle for democracy and ethnic equality in Burma for the past 25 years. She is the coordinator of Burma Partnership; a network of Burma-concerned civil society organizations across the Asia-Pacific region working for human rights and democracy in Burma.
Andrew Khoo
Background
He is currently serving his 8th year as an elected member of Bar Council Malaysia and is Co-Chair of the Human Rights Committee and the Trade in Legal Services Committee. He also chairs the Ad Hoc Committee on the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement and the Sub-committee on Anti-Money Laundering and Anti-Terrorism Financing. He has represented
the Malaysian Human Rights Commission (SUHAKAM), the Malaysian Bar, the Council of Churches of Malaysia and the Bible Society of
Malaysia in watching briefs before the Federal Court, Court of Appeal and the High Court. He
has briefed Members of Parliament on legislative matters such as the death penalty, the position of refugees and asylum seekers in Malaysia, the DNA Identification Bill, the Personal Data Protection Bill, the Legal Profession (Amendment) Bill, the International Criminal Court and the National Security Council Bill. He has also addressed various issues of human rights in Malaysia at the Human Rights Council and the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, in Geneva, at the European Union in Brussels, as well as regionally and locally. He gave evidence before the Parliamentary Select Committee on Electoral Reform, on behalf of the BERSIH 2.0 Steering Committee, of which he was a member until November 2013. He authored the chapter on Law and the Judiciary in the Annual SUARAM Report on Civil and Political Rights in Malaysia from 2007-2014 and 2016, and his articles have been published in The New Straits Times, The Sun, Malaysiakini, The Nut Graph, Micah Mandate, the Wall Street Journal and on the Malaysian Bar website and journal.