Sukti Dhital

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Sukti Dhital (@sfdhital) is a human rights lawyer with nearly eight years of frontline international law experience in the fields of economic and social rights. Previously, she was the executive director and co-founder of Nazdeek, a legal empowerment organization committed to bringing access to justice closer to marginalized communities in India. Nazdeek was awarded the inaugural Namati Justice Prize for its work in demanding dignified conditions for tea laborers in the northeastern state of Assam (India). Prior to Nazdeek, Dhital was the director of the Reproductive Rights Unit at the Human Rights Law Network, India and assisted in securing landmark social and economic rights judgments including Laxmi Mandal v. Deen Dayal Harinagar Hospital & ORS, W.P.(C) 8853/2008, the first decision in the world to recognize maternal mortality as a human rights violation and to award constitutional damages. She has also worked at the American Civil Liberties Union’s Reproductive Freedom Project and as an appellate litigation associate at the firm of Bingham McCutchen LLP. Dhital received her BA from the University of Michigan and her JD from Northeastern University School of Law. She is a member of various networks including the International Socio-Economic Rights Project and a frequent speaker at institutions and conferences concerning issues of social and economic rights, gender equality, clinical legal education and legal empowerment.