Visiting Faculty: Prof. Dr. Surya Dhungel

Professor (Dr) Surya Dhungel is a member of the National Human Rights Commission of Nepal and a member of the Kathmandu University School of Law Faculty Board.

Dhungel started his law practice with his father at the District and Appellate level courts in Janakpurdham, south-eastern part of Nepal after joining the Nepal Bar Association in 1976. He has been practicing law at the Supreme Court in Kathmandu since 1977, except for the period between 1999 and 2006 when he worked for the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNOHCHR) in Cambodia. In 2004, he was seconded to the United Nations Mission in Liberia for two years as Rule of Law Adviser (Human Rights).

Dhungel served at the Faculty of Law, Tribhuvan University in Kathmandu for over 22 years as a Professor until he voluntarily retired from the faculty in 1999. During his active years of teaching and practising law, he contributed to the constitution-making of the 1990 constitution through a participatory constitution-making project as President of a leading national NGO called LEADERS-Nepal. Following the promulgation of the 1990 Constitution, he undertook the task of sensitizing parliamentarians about their roles and responsibilities through a parliament strengthening program of the Society for Parliamentary and Constitutional Exercises (SCOPE) as a founding member and President. During this period, he also played a lead role as a pro bono lawyer to initiate public interest litigation at the Supreme Court of Nepal in the areas of resource conservation, human rights, and the rule of law.

Dr. Dhungel holds LL.M and PhD degrees in constitutional law and has received advanced training in the areas of human rights, water law, and conservation management from Italy, the Netherlands, and the USA. He co-authored two leading books on the Nepalese Constitution and legal system in English and published several articles on contemporary legal issues.

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