Dipendra Jha (pictured above with lawyer Courtenay Barklem) is a Nepalese Human Rights lawyer. He has been working as a human rights and constitutional lawyer since 2007, working on cases of human rights abuses in the Terai region including cases of torture, arbitrary arrests, and threats to human rights defenders. He leads the Terai Human Rights Defenders Alliance (THRDA) and the Terai Justice Centre (TJC). In April 2017, he visited the UK and PBI UK spoke to him about the human rights situation in Nepal. The following is based on excerpts from that interview.

PBI-USA seeks to hire a part-time advocacy coordinator to work closely with the PBI USA Executive Director, and global PBI staff and volunteers, to help develop and implement PBI’s advocacy strategy in the U.S., in support of the human rights defenders (HRDs) for whom we provide protection. The position will focus primarily on Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico, with limited support provided also to Colombia, Kenya, Nepal, and Indonesia.

This year in Colombia, human rights defenders and social leaders have faced 232 threats, 21 attacks and 70 assassinations, 31 of which occurred after the bilateral ceasefire with the FARC went into effect.