LAHURNIP

NEWS RELEASE

LAHURNIP named 2025 recipient of Human Rights and Business Award

Human Rights and Business Award Foundation

Geneva, 24 November 2025

Today, during the annual United Nations Forum on Business and Human Rights, our foundation is naming LAHURNIP (Lawyers’ Association for Human Rights of Nepalese Indigenous Peoples) as recipient of the 2025 Human Rights and Business Award. The award recognizes “outstanding work by human rights defenders addressing the human rights impacts of business.” A three-minute video announcing the award and featuring leaders of LAHURNIP is available in English and Nepali.

30 years ago a group of Indigenous lawyers in Nepal founded LAHURNIP, and since then the organization has worked with grassroots Indigenous communities in Nepal to defend their human rights, and to seek justice and remedies for those harmed by corporate and government activities. The lands, resources and livelihoods of Indigenous Peoples are disproportionately affected by business and government actions. LAHURNIP offers legal aid, strategic litigation, and advocacy to Indigenous and local communities, particularly those impacted by large-scale development projects.

One of our foundation’s Advisory Network members, Joan Carling (Executive Director at Indigenous Peoples Rights International, herself from the Indigenous Kankanaey Tribe in the Philippines), commented: “Through the years, LAHURNIP has given hope to many Indigenous communities who are feeling helpless and powerless in the face of aggression by business interests often supported by the government. LAHURNIP’s greatest strength is the deep trust it has earned from Indigenous and local communities. The organization has done exemplary work alongside the most marginalized Indigenous communities affected by business operations.”

The foundation’s board members (Christopher Avery, Regan Ralph and Valeria Scorza) said today: “We congratulate LAHURNIP for its 30 years of exceptional work defending the human rights of Indigenous Peoples of Nepal, working side by side with grassroots Indigenous communities. We pay tribute to all five organizations nominated for the award this year, for the excellent work they are doing to protect fundamental rights; they are listed near the end of this news release.”

Shankar Limbu (Vice Chairperson of LAHURNIP’s Executive Board) made the following remarks; he is a lawyer defending human rights in Nepal, and belongs to the “Limbu” Yakthung Indigenous Peoples of Eastern Nepal: “We are deeply honored to receive this prestigious award. Indeed, we firmly believe this is the recognition of, and honor to, the collective movement of Indigenous Peoples and our allies who stand with us for pursuing justice and human rights. We thank the foundation for this recognition, which strongly encourages us to hold business and government actors accountable and to safeguard our sovereignty, self-determination, self-governance, and the stewardship of our ancestral lands and environment. In our decades of experience, due respect and implementation of human rights in business activities resolves latent and manifested conflicts between Indigenous Peoples and business actors, including the state, in amicable manners, leading to ensuring peace and just development.”

LAHURNIP works to hold business, government bodies, and International Finance Institutions accountable for respecting international standards, including:

• United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
• Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention of the International Labour Organization
• United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights
• United Nations Declaration on the Right to Development
• Instruments relating to environmental justice

One of LAHURNIP’s core values is “Ownership of the Movement by the Grassroots Rights Holders: Committed to create an environment in which movements are owned and run by the concerned Indigenous Peoples at the grassroots level.”

Nepal recognizes 60 Indigenous groups in the country, which according to official figures constitute 35% of the population, though Indigenous organizations assert that the true figure is closer to 50%.

See the appendix following the end of this news release for examples of LAHURNIP’s varied approaches, and examples of issues addressed by LAHURNIP.

LAHURNIP has made clear that Nepali Indigenous Peoples do not oppose development projects in general – they simply demand that such projects abide by national and international legal standards and policy frameworks.

Past recognition for LAHURNIP has included:

• In 2024, at a ceremony in Chiang Mai, Thailand, Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact awarded the Centre of Defenders Award to LAHURNIP, in recognition of its outstanding contributions to the protection and promotion of the human rights of Indigenous Peoples in the Asia region.
• In August 2025, at an event in Kathmandu, LAHURNIP was honored by the Nepal Federation of Indigenous Nationalities for its 30 years of dedication to promoting and defending the rights of Indigenous Peoples in Nepal.

All nominees for our 2025 award

Following is a list of all the organizations nominated for the 2025 Human Rights and Business Award by members of our foundation’s Advisory Network. Each of these is doing important work deserving international recognition.

• Bangladesh Center for Worker Solidarity (BCWS) – Bangladesh
• Cividep India – India
• Community Resource Centre Foundation (CRC) – Thailand
• LAHURNIP (Lawyers’ Association for Human Rights of Nepalese Indigenous Peoples) – Nepal – AWARD RECIPIENT
• Satya Bumi – Indonesia

The award alternates annually by region – this year Asia & Pacific countries; next year Sub-Saharan Africa.

About the foundation

Human Rights and Business Award Foundation is an independent non-profit foundation. To ensure its independence, the foundation does not accept donations from any government or any company. The foundation’s Board members and Advisory Network members from across the world are listed on this webpage. Contact: contact@humanrightsandbusinessaward.org

LAHURNIP is the eighth recipient of the annual award. The previous winners:

• 2024: Migrant-Rights.org – Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries
• 2023: OFRANEH (Organización Fraternal Negra Hondureña / Black Fraternal Organization of Honduras) – Honduras
• 2022: Oil Workers’ Rights Protection Organization (OWRPO) – Azerbaijan
• 2021: AFREWATCH – Democratic Republic of Congo
• 2020: Migrant Workers Rights Network (MWRN) – Thailand
• 2019: Al-Haq – Palestine
• 2018: Justiça nosTrilhos – Brazil

Appendix

1. Examples of LAHURNIP’s varied approaches
2. Examples of issues addressed by LAHURNIP

1. Examples of LAHURNIP’s varied approaches

• Legal action: One of LAHURNIP’s key achievements: the 2024 Nepal Supreme Court ruling (made public in 2025) in LAHURNIP et al. vs. Office of the Prime Minister et al., where the court directed all levels of government to align laws and policies with international standards on the rights of Indigenous Peoples, and requires government bodies to seek Free, Prior, and Informed Consent from Indigenous communities before taking measures that affect them. This ruling has raised new hope for Indigenous Peoples in Nepal. Following the ruling, some local governments began enacting laws and policies to implement relevant international standards.
• Contributing to national policy: LAHURNIP made significant contributions to Nepal’s National Action Plan on Business and Human Rights, adopted in 2023, which includes commitments to: Free, Prior, and Informed Consent by Indigenous communities in relation to development projects; community participation in environmental assessments; and the protection of Indigenous businesses and customary institutions.
• Training: In 2020 LAHURNIP published Training Manual on Business and Human Rights – Prepared for Indigenous Peoples’ Human Rights Defenders, a 61-page manual supported by The International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs, and produced with financial support from the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
• Developing guidelines: In 2020 LAHURNIP, and the FPIC & Rights Forum (a group of local communities in Nepal’s Lamjung District), published a protocol for how Indigenous Peoples would like outsiders to seek their consent: Free, Prior and Informed Consent Protocol – by communities affected by the EIB funded 220 KV Marsyangdi Corridor in Nepal. This initiative arose in the context of the Marsyangdi Corridor transmission line project; Indigenous Peoples argued that the transmission line was being built on their ancestral lands and territories without their Free, Prior and Informed Consent. The transmission line project is overseen by the Nepal Government/Ministry of Energy, funded by the European Investment Bank (EIB) and Asian Development Bank, and constructed by companies headquartered in India and Nepal.
• Advocacy with international organizations:
  • In July 2025 LAHURNIP and its coalition partners submitted a joint report, regarding the human rights situation of Indigenous Peoples in Nepal, to the United Nations Human Rights Council, in connection with the Council’s forthcoming 2026 Universal Periodic Review of Nepal’s human rights record.
  • In July 2025, at a meeting in Kathmandu organized by LAHURNIP, Indigenous leaders raised concerns with the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. “Representatives from 12 affected communities reported violations, including forced evictions, militarization, land grabbing, cultural erasure, and development and conservation projects conducted without FPIC [Free, Prior and Informed Consent] on their lands.” 

• 

  Communicating via video, including:

  • “Free, Prior and Informed Consent” (2024)
  • “Effect of Road Expansions project” (2020)
  • “Interview with Shankar Limbu – LAHURNIP – Indigenous Peoples’ Rights to Autonomy and Self-Government” (2019)

 2. Examples of issues addressed by LAHURNIP

The many issues that LAHURNIP’s litigation, advocacy and research have addressed include the following. Large-scale projects in Nepal usually are carried out by major companies headquartered in Nepal, China and/or India.

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  Road project impacting the Newa (Newar) Indigenous Peoples: LAHURNIP played a key role in resisting the Kathmandu Valley road expansion project, which threatened to displace over 150,000 Newa Indigenous Peoples without their Free, Prior, and Informed Consent, without meaningful participation of local communities, and without compensation; the project also threatened the destruction of cultural heritage sites and the livelihoods of local residents. LAHURNIP filed a case in the Supreme Court, which resulted in a landmark 2018 ruling halting the demolitions and protecting the fundamental rights of the Newa and local communities. The verdict was hailed as a major victory for Indigenous rights in Nepal, affirming that a state’s development agenda cannot override human rights. Nevertheless, LAHURNIP and others have needed to focus on securing implementation of the Supreme Court’s ruling, which remains a challenge due to systemic barriers and political inaction.

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  Cable car project impacting the Limbu Indigenous Peoples: LAHURNIP, representing the Indigenous Limbu (Yakthung) Nation, has strongly opposed a cable car project on their sacred Mukkumlung mountain in Nepal’s Taplejung district, a project that has received support from International Finance Corporation. The project has been moving forward despite the Limbu community withholding their Free, Prior, and Informed Consent. Indigenous groups report that this project has led to deforestation, militarization of the area, and the arbitrary arrest of Indigenous activists. In August 2025 LAHURNIP, as legal counsel to the Limbu Nation, submitted a complaint about this project to the Office of the Compliance Advisor Ombudsman for the International Finance Corporation and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency.

• Hydroelectric project impacting the Tamang Indigenous Peoples: In 2023 LAHURNIP co-published a report prepared by former World Bank expert Navin K. Rai: Free, Prior and Informed Consent of the Tamang Indigenous Peoples of Nepal: An independent assessment on compliance with the IFC performance standards in the Upper Trishuli-1 hydroelectric project. The report details shortcomings in securing Free, Prior and Informed Consent from the Tamang Indigenous Peoples for this project which affects their land and resources, and criticizes the removal of Tamang Peoples from their traditional homeland. This hydroelectric project is sponsored by the Nepal Water and Energy Development Company, and financed by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the Asian Development Bank, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, and the Dutch Development Bank. Oxfam International commissioned the report; the other co-publishers were Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact and International Working Group for Indigenous Affairs.