Sapana Malla won the prestigious women right award

July 8, 2008, New York, The 2008 Gruber Women’s Rights Prize is proudly presented to: Yanar Mohammed, Sapana Pradhan Malla, and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, three activists devoted to enhancing women’s rights and empowering women under the most difficult conditions of armed conflict and war:
1. Yanar Mohammed, co-founder of the Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq (OWFI), for fighting tirelessly to stop the eradication of women’s rights in Iraq. OWFI is a women’s organization that has continued to speak out openly for women’s rights against all odds.
2. Sapana Pradhan Malla, a member of Nepal’s Constituent Assembly, for fighting to include women’s human rights in the constitution and, as a member of the Forum for Women, Law & Development (FWLD), for leading the successful effort to decriminalize abortion and to criminalize marital rape.
3. Dr. Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, a Palestinian feminist activist and researcher, for concentrating on sexual abuse and femicide, a term she coined for the abuse that puts women in a state of living death during times of war.

Short introduction about Sapana Pradhan Malla: – a leader in securing legal reforms protecting the fundamental reproductive and property rights of women in Nepal, is president of the Forum for Women, Law & Development. A practicing lawyer before the Supreme Court of Nepal, she was a driving force behind the passage of legislation to criminalize marital rape and in the drafting of a Gender Equality Amendment Act and a model Human Trafficking Act. earned a Bachelor of Law degree from Tribhuvan University and a Masters of Law degree from Delhi University. A practicing lawyer before the Supreme Court of Nepal, she has been involved in almost all leading public litigation for equality in that country, including cases involving legalization of abortion, criminalization of marital rape, and equality in marriage and family law. Due in large part to her efforts, more than 64 discriminatory laws of Nepal have been struck down. The Human Trafficking Act that she helped draft has become a legal model for the region. Pradhan Malla was instrumental in securing the most recent legal reforms protecting the fundamental reproductive and property rights of women in Nepal. She has published extensively on the legal status of women in Nepal and has brought several landmark cases to Nepal’s Supreme Court. A member of Nepal’s Constituent Assembly, she is a strong advocate of women’s participation in the political process and, as a result of her efforts and influence, women now make up one-third of the Assembly. She is dedicated to ensuring a comprehensive women’s rights agenda within the constitutional framework. Pradhan Malla is president of the Forum for Women, Law & Development, a non-governmental organization whose mission is to eliminate all forms of discrimination against women in Nepal and protect and promote human rights through research and public education, advocacy, legal aid and litigation. She is also vice president of the Legal Aid Consultancy Center and promoter of the Public Interest Litigation Forum.