Institute for Strategic and Socio-economic Research (ISSR)

After a decade long armed conflict, a federal republic of Nepal was set up to crate a just and inclusive society under the new Constitution. Injustice and discrimination were at the root of the conflict. The agenda "justice for all" should be at the top to maintain peace and stability in the country. There is a need of a two-prong strategy to make this happen: a) equip the judiciary with modern infrastructure and the human resources with technology and capability of to ensure that the justice is not delayed and is accessible to all. b) Assist right holders so that they are aware of their legal rights they hold and have a system in place to support them in their fight for justice. For this the fund is needed. Until now, the government allocation to the justice sector is minimal, assistance from development partners are limited and for short term. This calls for work to explore innovative financing attracting private sector contribution in Nepal. Our current effort basically focuses on convincing private sector actors, explaining how justice and peace are very much inter-related and why peace is necessary for a business environment to sustain and expand. Our eyes are on the orprate social responsibility (CSR) of the private sector, which recently became mandatory by law. A basket fund will be created with contributed CSR in the secretariat of business associations but will be operated under the guidance of a Steering Committee with representation of NGOs/CSOs, government and associations. The fund will be channeled through existing local judiciary committee, paralegals, and NGOs working in the justice area. There will be operation guidelines that would explain about fund flow mechanism, budgetary control and eligibility criteria for the organisations who request funds.