Mohna Ansari

Mohna Ansari is a member of National Human Rights Commission of Nepal. She was appointed to this position in October 2014. She worked as a commissioner at the National Women Commission (NWC) of Nepal between 2010 and 2014. She then worked as the Senior Advisor of IDEA International.

Early life Mohna Ansari was born in Nepalganj, Banke, in a lower middle-class Muslim family. She grew up in ailani land (public land informally owned) with her family. When she was in the six grade, the land reform program introduced by the government allowed her father to pay taxes and claim ownership of the land. However, there was a counter-claim on their land, and her father lost her case in the court. She attributes this incident as inspiration to become a lawyer later in life. Her family's sole source of income was her father's carpentry shop. However, her parents are illiterate, so they wanted their kids to be educated and to have careers in different sectors. Her brothers went to English medium boarding school, while she went to government school but according to her she was happy that her parent sent her to school where she got education not only Islamic but also modern education. While she was leading an investigation team for the Madhesh movement, the team found that live ammunition was used instead of rubber bullets. Following this meeting, the then Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli raised questions with NHRC Chairman Anup Raj Sharma and other commissioners about the speech. Nikhil Narayan, the senior legal adviser to ICJ (South Asia), said this summons and criticism threatened members of the NHRC, and prevented the commission from discharging its duties independently. Nava Devi Award, also in 2012, an award that recognizes and honors real life female heroes of Nepal. Nominated as one of 10 Asian women presented as “Portraits of Leadership” in an event organized by The Asia Foundation in California, USA in 2008.