Amnesty Nepal organized a one and half day induction and planning meeting for the members of the various thematic committees in Pokhara on 9 and 10 September 2022. In July, the National Board had constituted six Committees by selecting over 45 members from the Section’s membership with an aim to strengthening the Board’s vision and plan of action by seeking active engagement and mobilization of the Committees at the local level in support of the Board’s actions.
The six committees formed include 1) Media and Human Rights Committee 2) Human Rights Campaigns Committee 3)Youth, Power, Action Network 4) International Human Rights Issues Committee 5) Organizational Growth and Mobilization Committee and 6) Policy, Strategy and Planning Advisory Committee.
The first day of the meeting was started with a socializing and networking event where participants introduced themselves with show of their talents in the form of poetry and songs.
The second day of the meeting started with the inaugural session of the event which was graced by the presence of Chief Justice of Pokhara High Court Honourable Dilliraj Acharya. While Treasurer Roshan Bajgain welcomed the participants, Director of Amnesty Nepal Nirajan Thapaliya shed light on the objectives of the meeting. Thapaliya shared that the meeting would focus on discussion and deliberation around the section’s human rights priorities and strategy for the next five to ten years and the agenda of membership review and reform so as to make the overall structures of the organization even more agile and impactful in its human rights campaigns.
Former Chairs Rajan Prasad Kuikel and Surya Bahadur Adhikari also shared their perspectives on how Amnesty Nepal should drive the human rights actions ahead by liberalizing the organization’s reach and space including for participation and decision making.
Honourable Chief Justice of Pokhara High Court Dilli Raj Acharya expressed that he felt privileged to be part of the important event of Amnesty Nepal which marked a distinct identity in Nepal with the human rights vision and anchoring of the personalities such as its founder Nutan Thapaliya and Hrishikesh Shah. He praised the activities and campaigns of the organization encouraging it to further continue pressing the government towards translating the fundamental rights enshrined in the Constitution with necessary legal and institutional frameworks as well as resources. Honourable Acharya also advised the leadership, while reforming the internal governance of the organization, to identify and distinguish between those who aim to be piggyback on the organization and those who carry the organization on their back.
The rest of the programme focused on the review of Amnesty Nepal’s human rights campaigns, Amnesty Internationals’ global strategic framework, the issues that need to be prioritized in the Amnesty Nepal’s strategic framework, the decisions of the global assembly, the status of the governance reform processes, and the plan of action of the Committees in support of the vision and mission of the National Board of Amnesty Nepal.
