Arjun Karki

Who is Arjun Karki?

Arjun Karki is an academic, social activist and development practitioner in Nepal. His PhD thesis "The Politics of Poverty and Movements from Below in Nepal" awarded in 2002 by the School of Development Studies of the University of East Anglia, is founded on original case studies of three sets of social movements 'from below' in Nepal – the bonded labour or Kamaiya movement, the land rights movement and the Maoist movement.

He was engaged in pro-democracy movements in the 80s, 90s as a student and youth activist and in 2005/06 as an international campaigner and advocate. As a student activist, he was arrested and tortured multiple times by the police and security forces for his struggle for democracy, human rights and peace. Throughout the Maoist conflict, he was intensively involved in conflict mediation, conflict transformation and in defending the development space as the President of NGO Federation of Nepal. He played a noted role as a human rights defender at the national and international levels – especially at the United Nations and European Union levels - during the 'direct royal regime' in 2005 and the subsequent second democracy movement or Jana Andolan II in April 2006. He is now engaged in the ongoing peace-building process focusing on and advocating a people-centred and democratic peace-building 'from below' in Nepal.