Law and Policy Forum for Social Justice (LAPSOJ) – Kathmandu, Nepal
In the summer of 2018, I had the wonderful opportunity to intern as a rising 3L with the Law and Policy for Social Justice (LAPSOJ) in Kathmandu, Nepal. This young, but ambitious, non-governmental organization (NGO) is working on transitional justice and human rights issues in Nepal. After years of socio-political conflict and transition, Nepal adopted a new constitution in 2015. LAPSOJ works to dismantle barriers to the access of justice in order to ensure that the fundamental rights guaranteed in the new constitution are practically realized and that the new Nepali government adheres to its international human rights obligations.
At its core, LAPSOJ is a strategic litigation NGO. LAPSOJ’s current project, which I primarily worked on this summer, focuses on migrant worker issues. In recent years, Nepal has emerged as one of the most prominent countries of origin for foreign labor, averaging more than 1,500 Nepalese migrant workers leaving Nepal every day for foreign employment. Migrant workers are extremely important to the modern Nepalese economy, with remittance from foreign labor making up over 31% of the national GDP. Unfortunately, Nepalese migrant workers frequently experience a wide-range of abuses, including human trafficking, at the hands of the private and governmental actors that facilitate Nepal’s foreign labor regime.
So far in the project period, LAPSOJ filed five Public Interest Litigations (PILs) directly with the Supreme Court of Nepal, which have tackled issues including disproportionately high rates of migrant worker deaths in destination countries, legal aid and legal assistance to migrant workers in destination countries, out-of-country voting rights for Nepali migrant workers, Nepal’s Zero Recruitment Policy, and the regulation of foreign employment agents. LAPSOJ is currently expanding its efforts to follow up on the implementation of those Supreme Court decisions and is seeking to build upon the judgments’ foundational rights. It was just approved for a grant renewal (from the concept notes that I drafted!) that will support a more holistic approach in engaging stakeholders, finding routes to effective implementation, start a direct services legal aid program for migrant workers, and publish an annual legal journal centered on the foreign employment sector.
I originally pursued this summer internship to generally cultivate greater experience in the international policy field. Ending up specifically at LAPSOJ was the product of a series of coincidences. I was unfamiliar with much of Nepal’s history, political system, and the degree of difficulties facing migrant workers. After this summer, I cannot properly express to you the passion that I have developed for the wonderful work that LAPSOJ is doing. I admire my supervising attorneys at LAPSOJ, who have been wonderful mentors, because they exhibit great perseverance and flexibility in working not only in a developing country, but also in a transitional state on behalf of some of the most marginalized members of their society. My personal highlights from this summer include drafting concept notes for a grant that were approved by Humanity United and writing a journal article/recommendation to the Nepalese government on the benefits of international sentence transfers. Next week, my supervising attorney plans to use my research to amend the organization’s PIL on mutual legal assistance to include the state’s obligation to organize international sentence transfer agreements.
My advice to future students considering an internship with this organization is to be unafraid in reaching out to the LAPSOJ attorneys prior to applying. Even though I do not speak Nepali and I had no prior training in transitional justice mechanisms, I feel that I was still able to succeed here because I am extremely detail-oriented (much of my job involved editing and drafting English language documents) and I am flexible regarding the inevitable logistical difficulties that come with living in a developing country. Interns here should also feel comfortable in requesting certain types of assignments or pitching their own ideas—the attorneys appreciate initiative and are very accommodating.
LAPSOJ will likely not solicit interns on any American public interest website; I was introduced to the organization through a former Duke Law LLM. However, I believe that students should definitely reach out to the organization because they will receive an unparalleled experience in international human rights law and policy.
Submitted July 25, 2018
