Renu Adhikari Rajbhandari

Renu Adhikari Rajbhandari, MD, has been a prominent feminist activist for the last three decades. Her work, globally and in Nepal, advocates for women’s human rights and the right to health.

Dr. Rajbhandari has long worked with Our Bodies Ourselves as a global partner. She co-founded the Women’s Rehabilitation Center (WOREC) in Nepal, an organization working against all forms of discrimination against women. In 2008 the center published six booklets based on "Our Bodies, Ourselves." The series focuses on sexuality and violence against women, as well as on the politics of women’s health and human rights. The booklets serve as a vital educational and training tool throughout the country.

Her activism was originally ignited by the case of a young Nepali Dalit girl who was trafficked to be sold to a brothel in Mumbai. Dr. Rajbhandari advocates against all forms of structural discrimination, recognizing their role in trafficking, violence against women, and high reproductive morbidity among women.

She became a founder of the Alliance Against Trafficking in Women and Children in Nepal (AATWIN), the National Alliance of Women Human Right Defenders, and the Tarangini Foundation. Her vision and hard work have shaped several self-representative organizations including Shakti Samuha (a survivors’ organization), and the Women for Women Forum (a group of women working in the entertainment sector).

She has served as an advisor and expert committee member on gender-based violence to the prime minister’s office and the ministry of women, children, and elderly, respectively. She was the first national rapporteur on human trafficking within the National Human Rights Commission of Nepal.

Dr. Rajbhandari is a board member of many global, regional, and national human rights networks and she has received multiple human rights awards. From 2015 to 2020, she served as one of the trustee members with the United Nations Voluntary Trust Fund on Contemporary Forms of Slavery.

Dr. Rajbhandari was a visiting scholar at the Boston University School of Public Health and now at Suffolk University’s Center for Women’s Health and Human Rights. Her recent research study analyzes the human rights consequences for Nepali youths who illegally cross the southern border.