Human Rights Research & Editorial Practice

A decade of research, documentation, and advocacy across South Asia

Advocacy Forum Nepal � United Nations � Open Society Foundations � ICTJ � Human Rights Watch � 2005�2015

Context

Before AI, I led a research and editorial practice focused on accountability, transitional justice, and human rights documentation during one of Nepal’s most consequential political periods � spanning the Maoist conflict, the People’s Movement of 2006, the Comprehensive Peace Accord, and the subsequent transitional justice process.

This work, and the analytical methodology it produced � structured evaluation of evidence quality, sourcing rigor, logical coherence, and compliance against explicit standards � became the direct foundation of the Context Amplification Index and the Requirements-as-Code specification paradigm. The disciplines are the same; the domain changed.

Research & Publication

Advocacy Forum Nepal (2007�2014)

Advocacy Forum Nepal (AF) is a leading South Asian human rights organization partnered internationally with OHCHR, the EU, the International Commission of Jurists, ICTJ, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch.

As Research & Publication Manager and later Senior Researcher, I:

• Managed all organizational research activities; drafted and edited 10+ research and briefing papers on torture, sexual violence, transitional justice, enforced disappearance, and migrant workers’ rights
• Prepared and submitted 4 funded donor proposals; drafted 5 donor reports; filed 5 submissions to UN human rights treaty bodies
• Systematized the institutional database of 3,000+ documented human rights violation cases
• Maintained continuous editorial judgment over submissions from researchers, legal analysts, and external contributors

Open Society Justice Initiative (OSJI) Fellowship (2011�2013)

Selected as one of approximately ten human rights practitioners worldwide for the OSJI Fellowship � a highly competitive international program comprising advanced study in London and an applied implementation year in Nepal.

Investigated inadequacies of Nepal’s criminal justice system in addressing gross human rights violations; conducted structured interviews with 50+ victims, activists, and media practitioners; produced an advocacy document on the need for a Gross Human Rights Violations Act in Nepal.

International Consultancies

Publications

• Zubaan Books (New Delhi, 2014): Co-authored two research chapters � “Impunity for Conflict-related Sexual Violence in Nepal” and “Hunters vs Defenders: Rape in the Legal History of Nepal” � in a Zubaan anthology on South Asian sexual violence and impunity. Google Books
• Conflict Dynamics International: Contributed to the Children and Armed Conflict Accountability Framework (2015) � an international policy framework on accountability for serious violations against children. CAC Framework
• ICTJ � Across the Lines (2010): Writer credit on this internationally distributed transitional-justice research publication.
• Human Rights Watch � Indifference to Duty (2010) and Adding Insult to Injury (2011): Named in the methodology/acknowledgments as Advocacy Forum field researcher.
• REDRESS � Held to Account: Named contributor to this London-based international human rights publication on legal accountability and impunity in Nepal.
• Advocacy Forum Nepal � Criminalize Torture and June 26 Report 2008: Credited as writer and editor on AF’s English-language research reports.

Editorial Practice

As Executive Editor of Asan Bazaar Weekly (2005�2007) � Nepal’s national weekly during the Maoist conflict and the People’s Movement of April 2006 � I reviewed, accepted, rejected, and revised article submissions from political analysts, civil-society commentators, academic columnists, and foreign correspondents, evaluating for factual accuracy, structural coherence, quality of argument, and sourcing rigor.

The editorial discipline practiced daily across those years � assessing information quality against explicit standards � became the conceptual foundation of the Context Amplification Index: a metric for measuring whether a structured context produces more accurate, coherent, and better-argued outputs than an unstructured prompt.

Education

MA Human Rights � Central European University (CEU), Budapest, Hungary � 2012

MA English Literature � Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, Nepal � 2005