The boy's work is part of an exhibition, Recovering Lives, which opens at the ANU School of Art Gallery tomorrow and runs until September. The exhibition extends to the ANU Drill Hall Gallery.

The boy created the work after seeing his father arrested and several monks killed during protests in Burma last year.

The drawing depicts the ongoing maltreatment of the Burmese people and is the foundation for the exhibition.

The exhibition has works created by refugees in camps on the Thai-Burma border, depicting the day-to-day hardships faced.

The works focus on how the voices of oppressed people can be heard through human rights activism, research and art.

Recovering Lives features the works of six artists and explores the issues of history, humanity and contemporary violence through a variety of media, from installation to photography.

Some of the works have been smuggled through the notorious Thai-Burma border, as many of the artists are displaced persons as a result of recent cyclones and protests last September.

Australian National University PhD student Ma Khin Mar Mar Kyi and Canberra artist Julian Laffan travelled to Thailand to facilitate workshops for refugees in Thailand who had fled persecution in Burma.

According to Laffan, the works are an effective means for the struggling refugees to have their voices heard after more than 20 years of persecution.

''It is their voice which shines through in the artwork,'' he said.

''The artists wanted to communicate their situation to the world, as they need increasing international support.''

The show includes work by William Yang on the murder of his uncle, and Fatima Killeen on the victims of the Iraq war and Palestinian refugees.

A Recovering Lives conference, running today at the ANU and tomorrow at the National Museum, will explore how artists, researchers and activists can make a difference in highlighting human rights abuses around the globe.

Keynote speaker at the conference will be human rights activist Kevin Bales, who says slavery continues to be a problem, affecting people who are controlled by violence and are economically exploited.

''The population explosion, combined with the economic and social vulnerability of large numbers of people in the Third World, means that there is a glut of slaves on the market,'' he says.