Tom Andrews

A former Member of the U.S. Congress from Maine, Tom Andrews served as the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar from May 2020 to April 2026, where his research exposed a dire human rights crisis and his engagement with UN Member States helped reduce the military junta's access to weapons used to attack civilians and increase its diplomatic isolation.

 

Tom has run national advocacy organizations, including United to End Genocide and Win Without War and has provided strategic counsel and support to parliamentarians, political leaders, human rights advocates, and democracy organizations in Cambodia, Indonesia, Algeria, Norway, Croatia, Serbia, Ukraine, Yemen, and elsewhere. He served as General Secretary of The Nobel Peace Laureate Campaign for Aung San Suu Kyi and the People of Burma and as an advisor to the National Coalition Government of Burma and the Euro-Burma Network. As Senior Advisor to the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, Tom served as Interim Country Director in Cambodia and Ukraine.

 

As a Member of Congress, Tom served on the House Armed Services Committee, House Small Business Committee, and House Merchant Marine and Fisheries Committee. Upon entering Congress, he was elected President of the Democratic Freshman Class and later served as a Deputy Majority Whip. He introduced and passed the Small Business Economic Opportunity Act, which created a start-up loan fund for entrepreneurs with limited access to conventional sources of capital including women, minorities and persons with disabilities. He also authored successful amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act establishing an economic defense conversion program and a moratorium on loan guarantees for conventional arms sales to developing nations.

 

Before entering Congress, Tom served as Executive Director of the Maine Association of Handicapped Persons and Director of the Maine Studies Center at the University of Maine. He also served in the Maine House of Representatives and Maine Senate where he chaired the Joint Standing Committees on Taxation, Joint Standing Committee on Housing and Economic Development, and the Joint Standing Committee on State Government. His legislative accomplishments include Maine's Community Right to Know Act, which guarantees Maine citizens the right to know of the existence of toxic or hazardous materials in or near their community; the Whistleblowers Protection Act, which provides legal protections for workers who blow the whistle on illegal activity in the workplace; the creation of the Environmental Health Program within Maine’s Bureau of Health; the establishment of a Cancer Incidence Registry; The Mammography Screening Act, which requires insurance companies to cover mammography screening as part of all health care plans offered in Maine; and passage of progressive tax reform. He also led a campaign to establish accessible public transportation, a school breakfast program for all Maine students, and a statewide campaign for a bond issue that secured public investments in accessibility for people with disabilities.

 

Tom is currently serving as the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Cambodia.

 

Fellowship Project: The principles embedded in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the UN Charter are increasingly being questioned or attacked in the US and abroad. Public support for these principles can no longer be taken for granted, making human rights increasingly vulnerable.

 

The project will research the impact and implications of US foreign policy and that of other governments on human rights and international law. Research will focus on the language of human rights, including narratives used by public policy makers on topics such as humanitarian aid, accountability, a rules-based-order, and engagement with international institutions. Options for effective narratives and message frames that can resonate in the public square will be considered. The project will include, as case studies, human rights issues in Cambodia and Myanmar through the lens of Tom's service as UN Special Rapporteur on human rights.