Chin Human Right Organization

ABOUT CHRO

Chin Human Rights organization (CHRO) is a non-governmental non-profit organization

legally registered in Canada. It was formed in 1995 by a group of Chin activists who began
monitoring human rights situation in Chin State and Western Burma along the borders with
India and Bangladesh. Over the years the CHRO is growing from a small organization run on
a shoe-string budget to a well-respected and professionally managed human rights
organization. Its work is now regularly covered by the international press and cited in various
US State Department reports on human rights and religious freedom, the United Nations
Human Rights reports and several international NGOs.

With the supports of human rights defenders around the world, the Chin people, and the hard
works of CHRO team, the organization has become a key human rights advocate
internationally for the support of the Chins and other ethnic nationalities from Burma as well
as those living as refugees in other countries.

At present CHRO is actively working and engage in;

• Human rights documentation

• Campaign and Advocacy
• Capacity building (special focus on civil and political rights and women
empowerment)
• Humanitarian Assistance
• Refugee Issue
• Civil Society Building

CHRO DONORS

• The important works of Chin Human Rights Organization in the past and present is
supported by;
• National Endowment for Democracy
• United Nations Voluntary Fund for Indigenous Peoples
• Republic of Chez (through Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust)
• Swedish Refugee Aid
• Inter Pares
• Open Society Institute
• Netherlands Center for Indigenous Peoples
• Euro Burma Office
• Asia Indigenous People Pact
• Chin Baptist Fellowship of America (A group of 7 Chin Churches in America)
• Ottawa Chin Baptist Church
• Vancouver Chin Baptist Church
• Lai Baptist Church of Maryland
• Chin Evangelical Baptist Church of Dallas
• Burmese Revival Fellowship of Dallas
 • Norway Chin Christian Family
• Denmark Chin Christian Fellowship
• Lai Christian Fellowship of Frankfurt-Germany
• Victoria Chin Baptist Church (Australia)
• Melbourne Chin Baptist Church (Australia)
• Adelaide Chin Christian Fellowship (Australia)
• Chin Community of New Zealand
• Chin Community of Japan
• And several individuals

THE CHIN PEOPLE OF BURMA: A VERY BRIEF BACKGROUND

Chin people are one of the major ethnic groups in the Union of Burma. They occupy the Chin
State as well as other Chin inhabited plains in Sagaing division, Magwe division, and Arakan
state. The Chin people are one of the founding members of present Union of Burma through
Panglong Agreement signed on February 12, 1947.

Today Chin people in Burma are not represented in any form of political decision-making in
the national, state or local administration. The State Peace and Development Council which
made its way to power through a bloody coup in 1988 has ruled the country at gunpoint.
Preoccupied by the idea of “national unity or unifying the country,” Burma’s military regime
has embarked on a policy of creating a single national identity through assimilating all
identifiable ethnic nationalities into the mainstream Burman society, a dominant ethnic group
with which the regime identifies itself.

The net result of this extreme policy has been the displacement of tens of thousands of Chin
people to neighboring countries. It is estimated that at least 60,000 Chin refugees are living in
India while more than 20,000 Chin refugees are living in Malaysia, several thousands more
are scattered in North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand as refugees to escape
political suppression, forced labor, religious persecution, sexual violence and other forms of
human rights violations.