Top Bahadur Magar

Hon'ble Chairperson

Hon. Top Bahadur Magar is the Chairperson of the National Human Rights Commission since 3rd February 2021. He was born on 29th August 1946 at Kupandol, Lalitpur. He did most of his schooling including Bachelor level studies in B.A. and B.L. in Kathmandu and Diploma in International Law from Britain. Mr. Magar adhering to the maxim ''Access to human rights all over the country", pledges to devote himself to respect, protect and promote human rights.

Services

Mr. Magar entered into Supreme Court as being an Officer in May 22nd 1970.

He worked as a Second Class Officer in Special Police Department in 1976, playing the vital role of Public Prosecutor and being a Personal Assistant of Rt. Hon'ble Chief Justice. He worked as a Legal Officer (Under Secretary) at various Ministries of Nepal.

After his promotion to Gazetted First Class Officer in 1985, he has delivered justice, being an additional Zonal Judge at Narayani Zonal Court as well as at Bagmati Zonal Court.

After the enactment of the Constitution of Kingdom of Nepal, 1990, he was appointed as the Judge in Appellate Court and worked at the Appellate Court Pokhara, Janakpur, Patan and Biratnagar.

Worked as the Chairperson in Revenue Tribunal at Biratnagar and as the Chairperson at the Special Court in Kathmandu while being a Judge at the Appellate Court Biratnagar.

He was appointed as the Chief Judge in Appellate Court Patan in 2004.

He was appointed as an ad hoc Justice initially and later on was appointed as a permanent Justice in 2005 at the Supreme Court of Nepal.

While working at the Supreme Court of Nepal, he also worked in the various Committees in accordance with the Supreme Court Regulation.

He has also given decisions on election related issues being a member of the Constituent Assembly Court.

He worked as a member of the Judicial Council.

He also worked as the Acting Chief Justice while Hon. Chief Justice Khilaraj Regmi was out of the country.

Seminar Conferences

Attended the 11th International Anti‐Corruption Conference held at Seoul, the Republic of Korea in 2003 including other domestic and foreign Seminar.

Foreign Itinerant

America, Britain, France, Russia, Philippine, Singapore, Thailand and India

Honor

Gorkha Dakshin Bahu 3rd

Retirement and after retirement Services

Received compulsory retirement due to age factor in 2011.

Worked as an Executive Director of National Judicial Academy (NJA) from January 18, 2018 to December 15, 2020.

Dr. Surya Prasad Sharma Dhungel

Hon'ble Member

(Dr) Surya Dhungel is a Senior Advocate and Professor of Law. Currently, he is a Member of the National Human Right Commission of Nepal. He is academically associated with the Kathmandu University School of Law as visiting professor of law and as a Member of the Planning Advisory Committee. He is also a Chairman of the Management Board of the National Law College, affiliated with Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu.

As senior practising Attorney at Law, Dr. Dhungel headed until recently a corporate consultancy firm, LawMan Inc. (for legal solutions and management services) as Chairman in Kathmandu. As Senior Advocate and Member of the Bar, he contributed to the Advisory Committee of the Nepal Bar Association. And as Constitutional Expert and Senior Adviser, he is associated with the Forum of Federations, a think-tank Organization and global network of federal governments based in Ottawa, Canada. He has also served as Legal Adviser to the President of Nepal between 2008 and 2015.

Except the period between 1999 and 2006 when he took up a job with the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNOHCHR) to serve in Cambodia (as Chief of Legal Unit), in Liberia (as Rule of Law Adviser) and in Thailand (as Constitutional Expert), Dr. Dhungel was simultaneously engaged in teaching and law practice since 1977. Initially, he practiced law at the lower courts and later at the Supreme Court in Kathmandu.    

While in Liberia (2004-2006) where he was seconded to the United Nations Mission (UNMIL) for two years, his job was to act as the Rule of Law Adviser and ensure effective observation of Human Rights. On his return from Liberia to Kathmandu on 'special leave without pay' in June 2006, he contributed to the constitution building support program of the UNDP Nepal as Senior Project Manager for 18 months before he was asked by the first President of Nepal to serve as his Legal Adviser (2008-2015).

In the academic sector, Dr. Dhungel’s career at the Faculty of Law, Tribhuvan University, in Kathmandu lasted for over 22 years as Professor until he voluntarily took retirement in 1999, as stated earlier, to join the United Nations OHCHR as Chief of Legal Unit in Cambodia. During his active years of teaching and law practice, he contributed to the constitution-making of both 1990 Constitution and the new 2015 Constitution (promulgated on 20 September 2015 ) in his capacity as constitutional expert and civil society leader.  As civil society leader, he played a significant role at the policy making level for constitution building (as Coordinator of Nepal Constitution Foundation’s Project and Consortium of Constitutional Experts-CONCOE) and strengthening the parliamentary process (as President of the Society for Constitutional and Parliamentary Exercises (SCOPE), a national NGO, and also fought public interest cases at the Supreme Court in areas of resource conservation, human rights and the rule of law (as President of LEADERS-Nepal, a legal and environmental NGO).

Dr. Dhungel holds LLM and PhD degrees in constitutional law, and has received advance training (Diploma) in the areas of human rights, water law and conservation management from Italy, Netherlands and USA. He has co-authored two leading books on the Nepalese Constitution (1990) and legal system of Nepal (1985) in English, and published several articles on contemporary legal, social and human rights issues. He has contributed papers in many national and international events and traveled widely to more than 35 countries. He is married and has two daughters.

Mihir Thakur

Hon'ble Member

Hon. Mihir Thakur is the Member of the National Human Right Commission (NHRC) of Nepal since 3^rd February 2021. He was born on 29^th September 1958. He is a Law graduate from Tribhuvan University, Nepal Law Campus, Kathmandu and further completed his Master of Comparative Law (MCL) from Faculty of Law, University of Delhi, India.

Mr. Thakur started his professional career in Nepal Judicial Service before joining Lecturer in Law at Tribhuvan University, Faculty of Law. He taught Law since 1984 and continued till 2004. In the meantime he has also contributed to many institutions being Secretary, Nepal Bar Association Rajbiraj Unit, Guest Editor for Sagarmatha Awaz Weekly, Rajbiraj. He further excelled his career as a Coordinator, Good Governance Program and Public Interest Lawyer, Government Accountability Project for Pro-Public, Kathmandu.

He was also the Consultant and Researcher in / for various fields / organizations working for Rule of Law & Human Rights. For the period in between 2004 to 2007, he played vital role as being Senior Anti-Corruption Coordinator, Nepal Rule of Law and Respect for Human Rights USAID funded project.  He also served as a President for Videh Foundation, Lalitpur from 2007 to 2009. He was an Additional Judge, Court of Appeal, Dang, Tulsipur from 2011 to 2013 and Court of Appeal, Janakpur from 2009 to 2011. He is also associated with some advocacy research and social services organizations.

Mr. Thakur has participated as Tour Leader of Nepal Government Official's Study  Tour  to Anti-Corruption  Agencies  of Malaysia & Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC), NSW, Sydney and other governmental organizations of Canberra, Australia in August 2005. He has also participated as Tour Leader of Nepali official's tour to Independent Commission against Corruption (ICAC), Hong Kong in December 2004. Also attended Regional Workshop on ADB-NGO-Government Cooperation, Manila, Philippines in November 2002.

He has published many books and research articles; his recent book is on "Politics, Law and Justice in Nepal, 2019".

Manoj Duwady

Hon'ble Member

Hon. Manoj Duwady, Member of National Human Rights Commission of Nepal since 3^rd February 2021. He was born in 26^th February 1962. He did Bachelor in Law (B.L.) in 1987 from Nepal Law Campus, Kathmandu. Mr. Duwady is reputed, practicing lawyer with more than three decades of long period. His proactive role towards human rights arena will be milestone to respect, protect and promote the human rights.

Professional Experiences.

Senior Advocate: ALPHA Law CHAMBER, Anamnagar, Kathmandu from 1987 to till 2^rd February 2021.

• Mr. Duwady provided accurate, timely and effective legal advice to numerous clients.
• He attended the hearing at Court.
• He presented the concerned evidences into court premises to assist the various clients in legal proceedings.
• Mr. Duwady advised to various clients on their own legal rights and obligations.
• He interpreted and explained the law clearly to both individual and business clients.
• He performed any duties belong to legal proceeding which is as applicable.

Legal advisor to various Business and Social Agencies

Legal Competencies

• Mr. Duwady is able to present the cases in Court as persuasively.
• He has sound knowledge of civil, criminal, public, bankruptcy and administrative laws.
• He has knowledge of understanding of contracts, government regulations, intellectual property rights and patents etc. 
• Specially, he is associated with Tax and Corporate law.
• He has numerous experiences on assisting to vulnerable clients.

Professional Affiliation

• Member- Nepal Bar Association
• Senior Advocate license number-299, issued on 10^th September, 2017.
• Advocate License number -1575, issued on 18^th March, 1987.

Lily Thapa

Hon'ble Member

Lily Thapa showed high aptitude and academic promise from very young age, being the first student of Nepal, passing her High School at just the age of 13.  Lily secured a Master’s degree in Sociology and Anthropology, from Tribhuwan University, Nepal. She spent subsequent years in Sweden where she completed another Post Graduation in Women-in-Management from the Luleo University, Sweden.  At present, Lily is pursuing PHD degree in Sociology from TU.

Lily Thapa is pioneer to establish an organization which solely focuses on the issue of widows. She is the founding president of Women for Human Rights (WHR) that has been working for the social, political, economic and legal rights of widows in Nepal and in South Asia from past 25 years. Through WHR, her advocacy has changed government policy, and has been succeed to mainstream the issue of widows into the government agenda and have been succeed to change many discriminatory legal policies from country code of Nepal.

Over the years Lily has built up and garnered professional affiliations with various organizations that are involved in teaching as well as fully engaged in women’s human rights. She continues to raise pertinent issues concerning the rights of women at the national and international level. She is also the General Secretary for the South Asian Network for Women’s Empowerment in Development, (SANWED) where she actively lobbies various issues pertaining women across South Asia. She is also nominated as a Think Tank member in Ministry of Women, Children and Senior Citizen since 2016 till date. Lily is also serving as President in a women’s alliance for peace, power and participation - Sankalpa since 2018. Lily is also nominated as Goodwill Ambassador of International Human Rights Council.

Her efforts have been recognized by numerous national and international awards, including the recent one Jan Sewa Padak 2^nd in 2019 from the President of Nepal and Jan Sewa Padak 3^rd from then President of Nepal on 2013 on her work towards women empowerment and also has been awarded by International Human Rights Award in 2019 by International Human Rights Council. She is also nominated as Woman Manager of the Year by Management Association of Nepal for her leadership.  By profession Lily is the Lecturer in the University of Nepal teaching Sociology and Gender and currently appointed as Honorary Member of National Human Rights Commission.

Over the years Lily Thapa has developed and published various books and pieces of literature on gender, women, peace and security, women’s rights and empowerment, as well as multiple training manuals.

Murari Prasad Kharel

Acting Secretary