Lieutenant Colonel Karma Rigzin is a former UN peacekeeper, one of the three most senior ranking women in Royal Bhutan Police, and founder of its Woman and Child Protection Division.
[2] Rigzin studied Political Science at Delhi University, intending to become a lawyer, but instead joined Royal Bhutan Police in 2000.
In 2007, her team identified and prosecuted Bhutan's first criminal case involving human trafficking charges.
In a ceremony at the White House, John Richmond, from the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons said the award was given: "In recognition of her extraordinary leadership in pioneering Bhutan's victim-centered specialized national police unit on women and children that led to the first-ever criminal human trafficking case, and her pivotal role in significantly increasing anti-trafficking efforts across all departments of the government".
[2] When interviewed about her career as a police officer, Rigzin said: "You read in your Dzongkha textbook that life is impermanent and all that but you don't realize this until you see dead bodies, and I think the result is you become a better human being because you are more in contact with reality.