Securing Dalit Rights and Building Democracy in Nepal:

The Legacy of Suvash Darnal

Wednesday, September 14

4:00 - 6:00 p.m.

 

Featuring

Larry Diamond, Stanford University

Iain Guest, Georgetown University and The Advocacy Project

Brian Joseph, National Endowment for Democracy

Tim Rieser, U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations

Krishna Sob, Dalit and development expert

Moderator: Carl Gershman, National Endowment for Democracy

 

The symposium will be followed by remembrances of and tributes to Suvash,

and a brief reception hosted jointly with the Embassy of Nepal

 

at

the National Endowment for Democracy

1025 F Street, NW, Suite 800

Washington, DC 20004

 

RSVP by September 12, 2011 to rsvp@ned.org

 

To view a live webcast of this event, visit this link.

 

On August 15, 2011 a senseless accident claimed the life of Suvash Darnal, a dynamic human rights activist from Nepal who was in residence at NED as a Reagan-Fascell Democracy Fellow in 2008-2009.

Until his life was so tragically cut short, Suvash Darnal championed the rights of the Dalits and other marginalized communities in Nepal, committing himself to improving their lives and making the inclusion of all citizens in the country's political, economic, and social mainstream a way of strengthening Nepal's fragile democracy. As a founding member of the Jagaran Media Center and the Samata Foundation, Suvash worked to ensure that the voice of Dalits in Nepal was heard in the media and policy spheres. He worked to enhance the journalistic expertise of youth to cover stories and events impacting Dalits and played an integral role in informing Dalit Constituent Assembly members of the need to protect minority rights in Nepal's new Constitution.

Suvash believed that (in his own words), "the myriad of issues in Nepal are certainly complex but by no means are they intractable." This symposium will pay tribute to him by exploring the issues related to the two causes to which Suvash devoted his all-too-short life: securing the rights of minorities and building a democratic future for Nepal.

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National Endowment for Democracy

1025 F St. NW

Washington, District of Columbia 20004