Sapana Pradhan Malla (Nepali: सपना प्रधान मल्ल) (born November 15, 1963 -) is a Nepalese Supreme Court Judge since August 1, 2016[1] and a former member of the Nepalese Constituent Assembly under proportional representation system from the CPN-UML party. Malla is also currently serving as the President of Judges Society, the professional organisation of Nepalese judges.[2][3]
Malla is also a former Senior Advocate of Nepal.[5] Malla also served as a member of the Nepalese Constituent Assembly, from May 2008 to May 2012, during which time she advocated for women's rights in all areas—from reproductive rights to citizenship.[6]
When asked about the challenges she faces as an advocate for women's rights, she told PassBlue: "When I started working on women’s rights, I decided to take up this work because it wasn’t just social, cultural bias against women that existed in the country, but even the law was problematic. But when you want to reform the law, you need to challenge everything: the state, the biases against women, culture, religion and a majority of patriarchal views."[6]
In 2008, Malla and Yanar Mohammed were joint winners of the Gruber Prize for Women's Rights (given by the Peter and Patricia Gruber Foundation[7]) for her work related to "public interest litigation in [Nepal], including equality in inheritance, legalization of abortion, criminalization of marital rape, equality in marriage and family law."[8]
Malla was a member of the Committee Against Torture (CAT) during the 2014 to 2017 term. She is also the former president of the Forum for Women, Law & Development.[9]
