Devraj Choudhary

Devraj is a social activist and Indigenous People’s human rights defender who has worked tirelessly to raise awareness on the issues of ILO 169 and UNDRIP as well as workshops on climate change, bio-diversity and federalism. He works for the Nepal Federation of Indigenous Nationalities (NEFIN) and identifies himself as Chaudhary, of the Tharu ethnic minority. He hopes that the training will equip him and his organization effectively in their public awareness and promotion campaign and improve their ability to monitor human rights violations against Indigenous people. He has previously been involved in twelve different human rights training programs held in both Nepal and Thailand. He perceives the lack of participatory local development planning, lack of input in policy making and educational development as the biggest hurdle that indigenous Nepali groups face. His expectations from the program are to increase his knowledge on international mechanisms and remedies for human rights violations against Indigenous peoples as well as to gain practical skills on monitoring human rights violations.