Purna Shrestha

Purna joined the Center in 2013 and will be based in the Nepal office. Her work at the Center includes supporting Asia program work on advocacy and litigation around sexual and reproductive rights issues including abortion and access to contraception information and services.

Purna comes to the Center from UN Women, where she was a program officer working on ending violence against women and HIV/AIDS. Prior to that, she was involved in the constitutional law reform process in Nepal in her capacity as a legal officer with the Support to the Participatory Constitution Building Process in Nepal, a project of the United Nations Development Program. She has also worked as a program officer with the Forum for Women, Law and Development. Purna has been involved in numerous studies on women’s issues such as implementation of the CEDAW Convention, violence against women, abortion, affirmative actions, and HIV and AIDS.

Purna grew up in India and, besides Nepal, has lived for a short time in Canada and Thailand. She received a master of law on sexual and reproductive rights from the University of Toronto. She also holds a bachelor of law from Tribhuvan University, Nepal, and a master in women’s studies from Lucknow University, India.