In a first for humanitarian organisations in Burma, the Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG) was awarded the Asia Democracy and Human Rights Award from the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy, in Taipei on Tuesday December 10.

The award is given annually for “significant contributions to the advancement of human rights or democracy in Asia through peaceful means.”

Established in 1992, The KHRG is a small and independent group documenting the human rights situation of ordinary people in rural Burma.

“This award has a lot of symbolic value to KHRG as an affirmation of the importance and value of our work. The grant that accompanies it will allow us to continue and expand our work in the coming years,” said KHRG’s Field Director, Saw Albert Moo, who will represent KHRG at the award ceremony.

The group also highlighted that ongoing rights abuses occurred in Burma on a daily basis. In the last two years, the group continued to report human rights violations in eastern Burma. “Though the overall human rights situation in southeastern Burma has improved since the ceasefire, too many abuses remain, including killing of civilians, and destruction of civilian property.” Said Saw Albert Moo, adding, “Abuses by profit-seeking actors have increased since the ceasefire, because drug traffickers and land-grabbing businessmen have a new freedom of movement, and landmines continue to kill and injure villagers and restrict their ability to move freely.”

Throughout the years, KHRG researchers have documented forced labor, systematic destruction of villages and crops, forced relocation, arbitrary detention, torture, extortion, summary executions and sexual assault.

In 2012, a KHRG delegation travelled to New York to present at a UN Security Council consultation meeting on the issue of child solders. KHRG released the report “Uncertain Ground: Landmines in Eastern Burma”, in 2012, and “Losing Ground: Land Conflicts and Collective Action in Eastern Burma”, in March 2013.

To promote the voices of villagers, KHRG uses field research documentation, report-writing, and local and international advocacy. “We hope that the international community will continue to support the villagers of southeastern Burma as they act to claim their rights.” Saw Albert Moo said.