Project Timeline
In 2018 Mara Malagodi worked with iProbono and LAPSOJ on a series of training sessions for legal practitioners on social rights in Nepal. That same year she teamed up with City academic colleagues Emily Allbon and Sabrina Germain with the aim of creating a range of resources, designed to help Nepalis enforce their sexual and reproductive health rights (SRHR).
In June 2019 Mara and Emily travelled to Kathmandu to run a workshop hosted by FWLD, the Forum for Women, Law and Development, an organisation founded in 1995 to work for the protection, promotion and enjoyment of human rights, where lawyers, law students, and civil society activists worked together to create a set of personas affected by sexual and reproductive health issues.
Shortly after Project Lead Mara moved to CUHK LAW in Hong Kong, and brought on board her academic colleagues Rehan Abeyratne and Ngoc Bui Son, and partnered up with iProbono and LAPSOJ to develop a Legal Design Toolkit on SRHR in Nepal illustrated by renowned Nepali artist Kripa Joshi.
In July 2020 Mara delivered with Rehan and Son a half-day training on social rights for the ESRC Fellows with iProbono and LAPSOJ. Mara’s session on SRHR inspired Bandana Upreti (iProbono) and Samana Kafle (LAPSOJ) to use constitutional litigation to seek the complete decriminalisation of abortion in Nepal. On 7 March 2021, these two Nepali lawyers filed a writ petition in the Constitutional Bench of the Supreme Court of Nepal asking the court to strike down on grounds of unconstitutionality the provisions of the Penal Code 2017 and Safe Motherhood and Reproductive Health Rights Act 2018 that continue to criminalise abortion in Nepal.
Covid scuppered our legal design work for a while but Sabrina spear-headed an online workshop on Reproductive Rights as Social Rights: Fostering Access and Implementation in May 2021, organised in partnership with City Law School, CUHK Law, iProbono and LAPSOJ. This saw over 80 academics and civil society activists coming together for a two day conference around sexual and reproductive health rights and the global movement for the complete decriminalisation of abortion. Contributors came from all over the world: Nepal, India, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Australia, England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Canada and the United States. We sought to support iProbono’s petition on the complete decriminalisation of abortion in the Supreme Court through comparative legal analysis of a range of case studies. In the workshop’s breakout sessions e also tested the initial drafts of the personas and added to our legal design materials, working with participants on journey maps, based on our personas. This tracked the likely path taken by individuals facing a sexual or reproductive health challenge, based on internal pressures and external influences.
In April 2024, Mara, Emily and Sabrina travelled again to Kathmandu and held with iProbono and LAPSOJ a series of workshops with stakeholders working on SRHRs in Nepal (legal professionals, civil society organisations, and medical professionals) to collect information to finalise our SRHRs Legal Design Toolkit and the training material associated with it.
In July 2024 we organised with iProbono and LAPSOJ an online soft launch for the Toolkit to amplifying its reach. The Toolkit, User Manual and the Video with detailed instructions on how to use the legal design material have been made available free of cost via the iProbono website here.
On 1 August 2024 we presented our #DesignTheLawNepal project and the Toolkit to UNFPA Nepal, the United Nations agency working on SRHR and received helpful feedback about the material.
In September 2024, Mara travelled again to Kathmandu to run with iProbono and LAPSOJ a series of events. On 12 September, Mara delivered the legal training for three of the Toolkit Ambassadors from legal practice. The training was based on a short presentation of the project and a series of problem-questions on SRHR that Mara has designed in collaboration with the team.
On 13 September 2024, Mara, iProbono, and LAPSOJ held a one-day in-person consultation event in Kathmandu on the barriers to the complete decriminalisation of abortion in Nepal with key Nepali stakeholders from the legal profession, civil society, intergovernmental organisation, medical profession, intergovernmental organisations, and government bodies. Sabrina joined us online and led the discussion with medical practitioners together with Roshani, while Mara led the session with legal practitioners with Barun, while Supriya led the session with civil society, international organisations, and government officers. The findings of this consultation are published in our co-authored Viewpoint in the Lancet Regional Health – Southeast Asia.
On 14 September 2024, we held the official launch of the Toolkit in Kathmandu by senior members of the judiciary in Kathmandu, with Mara, iProbono, and LAPSOJ in person, and Emily and Sabrina online. In his keynote address, the Honourable Kalyan Shrestha, former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Nepal, who was instrumental in adjudicating landmark cases on reproductive rights, said “Toolkit is a new thing for me. This could be a way to explain the law in simple terms to the general people. It’s a good tool to make people aware of their rights that they weren’t previously aware of. It is important to fill the gap between law formulation and law dissemination.”
Delivering the second keynote address, Supreme Court Justice Hari Phuyal highlighted that, “What we need is holistic intervention—legal, policy, and societal transformation, with changes in attitudes, perceptions, and behaviours. This Toolkit is a promising step toward ensuring that stakeholders are well-versed with the law and that international and national commitments are upheld. Its accessible design allows individuals affected by the law to better understand their rights and obligations. I believe this unique approach has the potential to be replicated for other issues, raising legal awareness through effective messaging.”
The launch was followed by an interactive workshop for doctors working in women’s health, civil society, lawyers and other key stakeholders. Through group discussions and role-play activities, we tested the legal design material and planned a strategy to roll the Toolkit out across Nepal with our participants.
On 22 November 2024, Mara delivered the online training for the two Toolkit Ambassadors from the medical profession and civil society. The training was based on a short presentation of the project that Mara had prepared and a fictitious scenario on abortion framed as a consultation with a doctor that Sabrina Germain had created.