Ali Johar

Ali is a Rohingya refugee activist currently based in New Delhi, India. He is one of the founding members of Rohingya Human Rights Initiative.  He was born in Buthidaung Township of Rakhine State (formerly known as Arakan) in Myanmar and was only 10 when he was forced to flee Myanmar to find refuge in Bangladesh in 2005, then to Delhi in 2012.  Ali plans to become a human rights lawyer and advocate for stateless people and refugees and their detention crisis.

He founded the Rohingya Literacy Programme to help Rohingya children to access formal education in India, and has been widely engaged in finding educational opportunities for refugee children through advocacy and admission facilitation, improving access to health services for refugees in India, emergency relief, facilitating legal aid for Rohingya refugees, empowering women and youth and organizing sports events to promote harmony between communities.  Ali has been recognized by the Rajiv Gandhi National Institute of Youth Development as a “Global Youth Peace Ambassador”.  He holds a degree in Political Science from University of Delhi and a post graduate Diploma in Human Rights, International Humanitarian Law and Refugee Law from the Indian Society for International Law.

Ali’s SCI fellowship allows him to develop his research, writing, language and digital advocacy skills, while also expanding his network with other stakeholders, organisations, experts and activists working on statelessness, citizenship and detention issues globally. The networking includes people and institutions from Myanmar as well as from the international community.