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How Salzburg Global Fellow Nirmal Kumar Upreti is expanding access to justice, improving governance, and working towards peacebuilding in Nepal
Photo Credit: Christian Streili
This interview was conducted prior to Salzburg Global's Asia Peace Innovators Forum in-person program in June 2023.
Nirmal Kumar Upreti is a Fellow of Salzburg Global’s 2023 Asia Peace Innovators Forum. He is the president of the Forum for Nation Building in Nepal, where he works on diverse areas such as human rights, migration, mediation access to justice, youth, development, and peace.
Nirmal has been working in the field of human rights since 2006. In 2013, he founded the Forum for Nation Building in Nepal, which addresses issues such as human rights, access to justice, governance, peace, disaster response, and immediate concerns in the country. According to Nirmal, one of the notable projects implemented by his organization is the Community Mobile Clinic, which started in 2015 and was recognized worldwide by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). This initiative assists communities by providing legal teams that educate individuals about legal matters and offer support like court representation. The project seeks to bridge the gap in legal knowledge and increase access to justice, particularly for those who lack resources and information.
Nirmal explained that this project started when he observed that “people in most of the country have limited information or access to justice. Since people are limited in information on legal issues [and] they don’t have access to justice. If they don't have access to justice, how can we expect peace within the country and society? So, we have started this project and already reached 45,000 people on different legal issues.”
The Forum for Nation Building in Nepal also empowers local governments and addresses governance issues. They additionally provide training and support community mediators who help resolve conflicts within the community, reducing the reliance on lengthy court procedures and thus improving access to justice.
The organization also works on peacebuilding in Nepal by working with Maoist combatants to integrate the peace process and advocate for human rights standards. Nirmal has upheld human rights standards to ensure that ordinances align with international norms. Furthermore, his organization actively campaigns for nuclear disarmament and aims to reduce the humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons. They collaborate with various stakeholders such as parliamentarians, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, political youth leaders, human rights defenders, and journalists to promote the ratification of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
As to what inspired him to pursue peace work, Nirmal referred to how personal conflict has always made him uncomfortable, saying “I have never fought with my friends. Whenever there is a conflict or a dispute among my friends, I am the first to call for resolution. I believe it’s in my character to work for peace.”
Nirmal was introduced to Salzburg Global Seminar through a Fellow from the previous year’s cohort of the Asia Peace Innovators Forum and he was inspired by the program’s focus on peacebuilding in Asia. He is excited about the network of peace professionals in Asia that the program offers him to enhance his work on maintaining peace in Nepal.
Through virtual meetings leading up to the in-person program in Salzburg, Nirmar enjoyed hearing from past Fellows about their experience implementing projects in their home countries. He emphasized the particular value of connecting with Fellows from his own country and beyond, as it fosters collaboration and builds local and international networks.
Beyond the program, Nirmal recognized the long-term value of becoming a Salzburg Global Fellow, expressing that “My first value is the network access I gain from this program, followed by the new learnings of other contexts. I expect to develop new partnerships and support networks – technical or financial - from the network, this program offers to me.”
Since coming to Salzburg in June 2023, Nirmal has been working alongside other Salzburg Global Fellows on a project titled “Promoting Peace Through Mediation”.