Aung San Suu Kyi, AC is a Burmese stateswoman and president of the National League for Democracy (NLD) in Myanmar. In the 1990 general election, the NLD won 59% of the national votes and 81% (392 of 485) of the seats in Parliament.[4][5][6][7][8][9][10] She had, however, already been detained under house arrest before the elections. She remained under house arrest in Burma for almost 15 of the 21 years from 20 July 1989 until her most recent release on 13 November 2010,[11] becoming one of the world's most prominent political prisoners.[12]
Suu Kyi received the Rafto Prize and the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought in 1990 and the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991. In 1992, she was awarded the Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International Understanding by the government of India and the International Simón Bolívar Prize from the government of Venezuela. In 2012, the Government of Pakistan awarded her the Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Award For Democracy. In 2007, the Government of Canada made her an honorary citizen of that country,[13] the fourth person ever to receive the honour.[14] In 2011, she was awarded the Wallenberg Medal.[15] On 19 September 2012, Aung San Suu Kyi was also presented with the Congressional Gold Medal, which is, along with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honour in the United States.[16]