Press Release

Today, on January 1, 2024, ICHRRF mourns the passing of its senior-most Member of the Board of Directors, Chairperson, International Advisory Board  and an international luminary in the field of jurisprudence, Prof. Ved P Nanda.

Prof. Nanda was Professor of Law at the Sturm College of Law, University of Denver and served as Director Emeritus of the International Legal Studies Program there. In 2006, Professor Nanda was honored with the founding of the Nanda Center for International Law. He served as Vice Provost at the University of Denver from 1994-2008.

Prof. Nanda has held numerous official posts in international, regional, and national professional and civil society organizations. He is widely published, having authored or co-authored 24 books in various fields of international law. For his public service, legal scholarship and contributions to Human Rights, Prof. Ved Nanda has received a number of awards including the Padma Bhushan,  Gandhi, King, and Ikeda Award for Community Peace Building.

Prof. Nanda's lifelong commitment to Human Rights began in his youth, having witnessed massacres during the Partition of India and the carving out of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. During his career in the field of international jurisprudence, he advised several governments and non-governmental organizations on reforming national and international law to better cater to an evolving human ecosystem and ensure the rights of all constituents - even those rendered stateless. Prof. Nanda had repeatedly stressed the need to revise and update the International Charter of Human Rights, the Declaration of Human Rights and the UNHCR in order to plug loopholes and refine its scope.

In recent times, Prof. Nanda was a pivotal co-founder of The International Commission for Human Rights and Religious Freedom (www.ICHRRF.org) aimed at researching, documenting and creating a platform for underrepresented communities facing Human Rights challenges across the world. He initiated and presided over the first ever public Human Rights Hearings on the genocide of Kashmiri Hindus in 1989-91, as well as the Bangladesh Genocide of 1971, which prompted other international Human Rights organizations to take cognizance, putting pressure on governments to acknowledge the genocides and discuss remedial measures.

Two years ago, ICHRRF had instituted the Prof Ved P Nanda Fellowship Training Program in Human Rights and Religious Freedom in his honor. This program brings together prominent academics and Human Rights attorneys to train promising youth from various fields who want to dedicate themselves to any aspect of Human Rights. This program will now be called the Prof Ved P Nanda Memorial Fellowship Training Program in  Human Rights and Religious Freedom.

In addition to a fine legal mind whose insights were sought by researchers within ICHRRF and beyond, Prof. Nanda was also a personal paterfamilias to many, providing a guiding voice and serving as a model for an honorable and non-partisan engagement with social justice. In this hour of mourning, The Board and Executive Committee at ICHRRF redouble their commitment to the values and direction he has left the world, and will strive to institutionalize his work so that it may carry forward into future generations.