Mangala Sharma
Mangala Sharma created Bhutanese Refugees Aiding Victims of Violence (BRAVVE) while she, herself, lived in a refugee camp near Nepal, following her expulsion from Bhutan in 1992 for her ethnicity. BRAVVE helps women refugees who have been raped and tortured.

Now, Ms. Sharma is a seasoned member of the international human rights community. She represented the Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children at the 1997 session of the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW); and she completed a three-month human rights training program at Columbia University and will return to Nepal in June. Ms. Sharma and her family became refugees five years ago as a result of the Bhutanese government’s revocation of citizenship rights and eventual expulsion of Nepali-speaking Bhutanese citizens.