Suhas Chakma

Suhas Chakma belongs to indigenous Chakma community in India. He has been engaged in advocacy on standard setting at national and international level including on the rights of indigenous peoples for over three decades. As a defender, he has filed over 2,100 complaints against violations of human rights with the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and the constitutional courts in India, securing justice and reparation over US$2 (two) million compensation for the victims and their relatives. He currently serves as Director of the Rights and Risks Analysis Group (RRAG), New Delhi and a Member of Core Group on Human Rights Defenders and NGOs of the NHRC, India. He has been associated with various national, regional and international human rights organisations and previously, he served as a Board member of Geneva for Human Rights – Global Training (Switzerland), Asian Centre for Human Rights, South Asia Human Rights Documentation Centre and Asian Indigenous & Tribal Peoples Network. He specialises on project monitoring and evaluation, and evaluated projects including for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the German Institute for Development Evaluation (DEval), Christian Aid etc. He also served as the Domain Expert to the NHRC to draft ‘Advisory on protection of the Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups during COVID-19 pandemic’ and Interlocutor of the Government of India on the Bru Internally Displaced Persons. He is a commentator to both print and electronic media on rights, governance and conflict issues in Asia.

He holds Master of Arts (Economics) from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi and Diploma in human rights from the Institute of Social Studies, The Hague.