The Business and Human Rights Award Foundation has named LAHURNIP (Lawyers’ Association for Human Rights of Nepalese Indigenous Peoples) as the 2025 recipient of the Human Rights and Business Award, which recognizes “outstanding work by human rights defenders addressing the human rights impacts of business”.

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.

Shankar Limbu (Vice Chairperson of LAHURNIP’s Executive Board and Indigenous lawyer defending human rights in Nepal) said,“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 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. 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.”