Help students study and work for justice in Nepal

This message is going to 24 friends who have donated $5,328 to help The Center for Human Rights and Victims of Violations (CHRV) launch a new academic program on transitional justice in Nepal led by survivors of conflict.

Your donations have exceeded our expectations and will enable us to launch the program in July, as we will shortly describe. Thank you!

*

First, a brief reminder of why it matters. Transitional justice helps societies and individuals heal the wounds of war, and Nepal needs plenty of healing: first, from the 10-year Maoist rebellion (1996-2006); and more recently from last year’s uprising by the Gen Z movement, which claimed 76 lives and injured hundreds.

CHRV's goal is to make sure that survivors of these two deeply traumatic eipsodes have a central say in how they are managed by the Nepali state and society.

CHRV was set up last summer within the School of Arts, Kathmandu University, by Dr Ram Bhandari, PhD and Niraj Ahariya, with help from three student Peace Fellows from the Advocacy Project.

After the CHRV team received a green light from the School of Arts, they opened a page on the University’s website and launched a newsletter, Survivor’s Record. Issue #11 of the newsletter was published reccently, and it came at a timely moment. Nepalis elected a new government in April and survivors had hoped that Balendra Shah, the prime minister, would move decisively to revive two commissions that will investigate disappearances and truth. Instead, the government began dragging its feet. The CHRV newsletter explains. It is essential reading for anyone interested in transitional justice.

In another important contribution, CHRV commissioned this paper on reparations by Shuyuan, a PhD student at Maastricht University, a 2026 Peace Fellow and key member of the CHRV team last year. Shuyuan’s excellent paper looks at local initiatives in Nepal to provide reparations for survivors – a perspective that is rarely found in mainstream TJ literature. CHRV has submitted Shuyuan's paper to the UN rapporteur on Truth and Reparations who is due to visit Nepal shortly.

*

CHRV’s academic program is now moving forward nicely.

Working together in Nepal and the US, Ram, Niraj and Emma have developed a 6-week program and curriculum for the inaugural classes, which will begin in July. The course will mix study with field trips and visits to memory sites in Bardiya which suffered more disappearances than any other district during the Maoist rebellion. CHRV has also enlisted a small group of human rights experts to serve as an advisory group and ensure that the academic content is top notch.

We are delighted to report that five students from the US have signed up for the course: Tomiris (Boston University), Aayushma (Wellesley), Hanshika (Tufts), Joe (Wesleyan), and Leo (Wesleyan). They will be posting weekly blogs here, and we hope you will follow along! We’re also expecting some Nepali students to sign up.

The 6-week program will wrap up by joining the annual commemorative event in Kathmandu on August 30 to mark the International Day of the Disappeared, which is always deeply emotional.

We are confident that all of this will provide our first cohort of brave students with a rich experience, while also building a credible academic program that will attract attention in the academic world and ensure a broad pool of applicants in 2027. If all goes well we may seek larger funding from embassies and foundations later in the year. In the meantime, Ram and his team in Nepal will be able to cover costs for this year - thanks to your generosity.

We will be reporting back at the end of the summer. In the meantime, please follow the blogs our students and know that you have launched a brave experiment - the first-ever initiative of its kind!

In gratitude,

The CHRV team (Ran, Niraj, Emma and Iain)