Melissa Upreti (born 1969) is a Nepalese lawyer and human rights expert who was the founding attorney and regional director of the Center for Reproductive Rights' Asia program.[1] [2] She is the Senior Director of Program and Global Advocacy at the Center for Women's Global Leadership at Rutgers University and a member of the United Nations Working Group on Discrimination against Women and Girls.[3]
Upreti is a Nepalese citizen born in the United Kingdom. She has a law degree from Nepal[4] and an LL.M. from Columbia Law School.[5] She is a fellow of the University of Toronto Law Faculty's International Reproductive and Sexual Health Law Program.[5] She was a co-petitioner in the case Lakshmi Dhikta v Nepal, which recognised access to abortion as a constitutionally protected right in Nepal.[5]
Upreti has written extensively on reproductive rights.