Who is she?
Ms. Yanghee Lee, 58, was most recently a professor at Sungkyunkwan University in Seoul, South Korea. Lee was elected to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child in 2003 and served as its chairperson from 2007 to 2011. She is the founding president of International Child Rights Center and participates in several organizations on special education and child rights in South Korea.
Ms. Lee was educated at Georgetown University and the University of Missouri-Columbia.
Ms. Yanghee Lee of South Korea is the new UN Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Myanmar. Source: Yanghee Lee (@leeyh78) on Twitter, used under fair use guidelines.
Why is she in the news?
The UN Human Rights Council in May 2014 appointed Lee the UN Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Myanmar. Lee paid her first official trip to Myanmar in July, where she met with government officials, community leaders, and civil society groups in Kachin and Rakhine states, and Mandalay, Naypyitaw, and Yangon. Following her visit, she described conditions in displacement camps in Rakhine as “deplorable,” while noting that the freedom to exercise certain democratic rights remains limited despite reforms. Lee is due to present her trip findings to the UN General Assembly in October.
What can we expect from her?
Ms. Lee has her work cut out for her, as human rights issues in Myanmar ranging from communal violence between Muslims and Buddhist in Rakhine state to the treatment of journalists have attracted increasing attention from the international media. The biggest challenge facing Lee will likely be building a close working relationship with the Myanmar government during her tenure.
