The Secretary of State’s Human Rights Defender Award recognizes eight individuals who have demonstrated leadership and courage promoting human rights and fundamental freedoms around the world.  The Award celebrates courageous individuals who press every day for respect for the human rights of all people.

Mang Hre Lian has spent his life working in different capacities to promote human rights, religious freedom, media freedom and youth political participation in Burma.  He has led various projects within the Chin Human Rights Organization (CHRO), the only locally led human rights organization from Burma with United Nations ECOSOC Special Consultative Status, including election monitoring, human rights documentation, awareness promotion, and outreach.  Since the military coup of 2021, Mang has led CHRO’s human rights documentation team, which has been instrumental in exposing and highlighting serious rights violations amounting to international crimes committed against his people by the Burmese military.  His leadership has ensured high-quality documentation of atrocity crimes, which resulted in the filing of cases in Indonesia and the Philippines against Burmese military leaders, as well as in providing crucial evidence that propelled the UN Security Council to discuss the situation in Burma in November 2021.