One of the major themes and working areas of Freedom Forum is protection and promotion of human rights. Freedom Forum believes that guarantee of fundamental rights will lead to the flourishing of democracy and improving the livelihoods of people.

Nepal is currently passing through a serious transitional period with sharp violation of people's basic human rights from different sections of society. Country's impunity index is ascending day after day and assaults on human rights are a widespread social practice that happens especially at this time of rebuilding the state and promoting democracy.

The deliberate human rights violations committed during this transitional period have further jeopardized the whole process of building peace and restructuring a New Nepal.In a bid to ensure every aspect of human rights and make congenial environment where every strata of people can enjoy their unalienable rights, Freedom Forum has put its efforts to strengthen human right situation in Nepal. In order to deliver our human right activities more effectively and timely, the Forum has set up a separate human right wing,-Human Right Unit-within the organization.

Major areas that we work under the theme human rights:

• Training on Human Right issues
• Research on the area of human right
• Monitoring of Human Right Situation
• Production and dissemination of IEC (information, education and communication) materials based on human rights themes and issues
• Advocacy and Lobbying for effective and timely enforcement of international human rights instruments
• Campaigns on human rights issues including media campaign and public awareness programs
• Celebration of special Human Rights occasions
• Civic education for the protection and promotion of human rights
• Interaction and discussion with law-makers and other stakeholders to ensure people's fundamental rights
• Developing papers and reports on various dimensions of human rights

Being a promising civil society organization working with the objective to promote freedom of expression and its corollary-press freedom-in Nepal, Freedom Forum has the firm conviction that democracy can not thrive and serve citizen's interests unless people's right to freedom of expression and of press is guaranteed.

Freedom Forum's sensitivity followed by consistent efforts for the protection and promotion of press freedom through regular monitoring, research, policy watch and inputs, publication, legal support, networking and advocacy has served as an impetus to be the part of people's fundamental rights.

Among the major accomplishments made by Freedom Forum for the consolidation and strengthening of freedom of expressions and of press are constant lobby and advocacy for policy reform on media sector, public awareness, analysis of media-related laws and inputs for improvements, consolidating enforcement mechanism, drawing up Agenda for Change (AFC) as a long-term plan for the enhancement of freedom of expression in line with international standard.

Without a free press, few other human rights are attainable. A strong press freedom environment encourages the growth of a robust civil society, which leads to stable, sustainable democracies and healthy social, political, and economic development. Hence, Freedom Forum expresses its commitment to adhere for the cause of freedom of expression and free press as the right is central to the protection democracy and all other human rights.

Though constitution of Nepal guarantees the freedom of expression and of press, the reality is very different than the law. Journalism, which is considered as a major profession to safeguard freedom of expression, is severely attacked, intimidated and threatened these days in Nepal.

In this connection, Freedom Forum carries out different programs to safeguard freedom of expression and to promote the notion of free press.

Freedom Forum has a strong independent mechanism to monitor press freedom and freedom of expression situation of Nepal. Freedom Forum publishes the report of Nepal's press freedom situation 2 times every year, i.e. end of the year and on the occasion of World Press Freedom Day.

Similarly, Freedom Forum had put sustentative efforts as one of the lead organizations in charting out the Agenda for Change (AFC) on freedom of expression and preparing joint action plan to execute these agendas in collaboration with ARTICLE 19 and Federation of Nepali Journalists (FNJ). The AFC was prepared in line with international standard on freedom of expression. The major activities carried out under this national campaign were four-round stakeholders meeting comprising the experts of freedom of expression and lawmakers, constant lobby and advocacy for the constitutional guarantee of freedom of expression, local discussion at grassroots level, media campaign, thematic discussion among stakeholders, focused group discussion and research.

Major areas that we work under the theme Free Press:

• Research and publication
• Advocacy and Networking
• Monitoring of freedom of expression and of press situation
• Policy Watch and Inputs for Reform of Media Sector
• Legal Support
• Media Campaign through electronic and print media
• Public Awareness Programs
• Thematic Discussion and
 

Freedom Forum, which has done a great deal whether that be in putting pressure for the adoption of RTI act or in promoting RTI culture or creating public awareness, is a pioneer organization in Right to Information (RTI) in Nepal.

Right to Information is the backbone of democracy. If people do not have right to know and are not empowered to question their government for accountability, democracy will not have real meaning in true sense. Good governance can not be ensured where people have no or limited access to information. Keeping in mind that strong law on RTI is required for the protection and guarantee of people's right to know, Freedom Forum had put its strong effort to lobby for the RTI Act through different programs to ensure this right.
We can claim without hesitation that the RTI Act is the outcome of our continuous efforts through a campaign headed by the Forum. We have conducted five slots regional workshops and a national symposium on the presence of parliamentarians to raise strong voice for the enactment of RTI Act in Nepal.
We are continuously lobbying to enhance RTI culture in Nepal with different objective of execution of RTI Law. We are confident that RTI culture can only be promoted when there is responsible supply side of information i.e. institutions working on public interest and strong demand side i.e. people seeking information. We are supporting information seekers by providing them with legal and technical assistance and pressurizing the institutions working for public interest for so-motto disclosure of information in one hand and to provide information to the information seekers the information they demand.
The initiatives of Freedom Forum to strengthen RTI in Nepal dates back to its establishment in 2005. The Right to Information (RTI), despite being guaranteed since the adoption of the 1990 Constitution, was only given effect in July 2007 with the adoption of the RTI Act 2007 in Nepal. The Parliament of Nepal passed the Act in July 2007 to give effect to the people’s fundamental right to seek and receive information on any matters of public importance held by public agencies.

The major areas of work of the organization are lobby and advocacy for policy reform on RTI, public awareness, strengthening demand side, public pressure for the constitutional guarantee of progressive RTI laws, analysis of RTI laws, consolidating enforcement mechanism, drawing up Agenda for Change (AFC) to improve RTI in Nepal, publication RTI materials for promotion of RTI among others.

The resource pool on RTI included competent and well-known trainers and consultants of Nepal, who take up responsibility for training citizens and civil society representatives on RTI. The resource pool incorporates members from civil society organizations, legal practitioners, human rights defenders and so on. Freedom Forum brought together these experts for the RTI campaign and training since they had substantial knowledge and experience on RTI, good governance and transparency.

Major areas that we work under the theme Right to Information:

• Research
• Training
• Policy Reform of RTI as per international standards
• Publication
• Monitoring (third party monitoring)
• Public Awareness Programs
• Implementation

Democracy is one of the prominent themes of Freedom Forum. Freedom Forum has strong belief that democracy can be flourished only when there is people's participation in every decision making process on the one hand and on the other the leadership of public agency should be transparent and accountable to the people.

Our activities are focused to promote democratic principles, norms, values and standards and to strengthen democratic structures and to foster democratic culture in Nepal.Political Parties, pluralism/diversity, inclusion/Integration, social Justice, rule of Law, equity, free and fair election, civil society, good governance, transparency, accountability, civil-military relationship, federalism, sustainable development, and resource sharing are major area of work under the theme of democracy.

In order to effectively deliver the activities on the theme and attain its programmatic objective more competently, Freedom Forum works in collaboration with NGOs, civil society organizations, academic institutions, community-based organizations and other national/international organizations as well.

Further, the emphases are given to the youths from different sections of the society in programs of Freedom Forum so as to make the young generation conscious and proactive towards upholding democratic norms, values and principles.Freedom Forum has been carrying out several programs to promote citizen understanding of and involvement in the political sphere. Currently, the organization operates different programs including that of training at local level, dialogue for democracy among different stakeholders, media mobilization focusing on the production of radio and TV programs and PSAs.

In the similar vain, the organization carries out different programs at the policy making level. Freedom Forum initiates programs to promote consensus building between parties, strengthen political party leadership and governance, and encourage civil society and media oversight of the political process.

Major areas that we work under the theme Democracy:

• Activities to promote Universal Declaration on Democracy along with other international instruments
• Capacity Building and Empowerment
• Research and Publication
• Public Awareness Campaign through Media
• Celebration of International Day of Democracy
• Documentation and dissemination of relevant information
• Conducts program for strengthening democracy
• Create awareness about the role and function of political parties and other democratic institutions;
• Civic Education and engagement for enabling democracy

Major programs that are accomplished in line with the Democracy are:

• Training at local level
• Democracy Dialogue
• Media Mobilization (radio magazine Loktantra, PSAs,