PROJECT: Public Interest Litigation

$10,000 to fund public interest litigation in Nepal including the creation of a legal fellowship program to provide assistance to some of the brightest law students who recently passed their legal exams. The project is about promoting and strengthening the next generation of public interest lawyers to continue past efforts and take up new initiatives to address environmental, cultural, social and consumer justice issues in Nepal. Two new cases were filed in 2024 including a Writ Petition to stop construction of hydro power project on the Trishuli River, best known for international rafting and a Writ Petition to invalidate a new law allowing private developers to build within national parks.

Some of the on-going cases include continued protection of World Heritage site in Lumbini from industrial air pollution by utilizing the health study from LEADERS; filing a Writ Petition to stop the dumping of garbage along the banks of the Narayani River and seeking a free flowing Karnali River, with an interim Court Order to protect the river.