The Conservative Party Human Rights Commission has held its first hearing, focusing on human rights violations in Burma.

On April 25 the Commission heard evidence presented by Charm Tong of the Shan Women’s Action Network, Nurul Islam, President of the Arakan Rohingya National Organisation, Guy Horton, author of Dying Alive: A Legal Assessment of Human Rights Violations in Burma and others. The hearing took place at Portcullis House, Westminster, and was chaired by Gary Streeter MP.

Charm Tong is a 24 year-old Shan woman and author of a major report on sexual violence committed by the Burma Army, called Licence to Rape, and one of Burma’s leading activists. She has won numerous international awards, including the Reebok Human Rights Award. She has been nominated one of TIME magazine’s “Asian Heroes”, and won the Maire Claire Woman of the World Award in 2004. In October last year, Charm Tong rose to prominence after she had a 50-minute meeting with President Bush in the White House to bring the gross human rights violations in Burma to his attention.

Nurul Islam represents the Rohingya people, a Muslim minority in Burma facing some of the most severe persecution in the country.

Guy Horton is a human rights activist who spent five years on the Thai-Burmese border investigating, compiling and analysing evidence of crimes against humanity and possibly attempted genocide.

The hearing was followed by a press conference with Charm Tong and the Shadow Foreign Secretary William Hague.