Lenin Bista

Lenin Bista, a former child soldier and activist, is from Kavre district. Lenin joined the Maoist movement in 2002 at the age of 12 as a militia and worked at the Intelligence Unit. He spent a few years at the UN monitoring Cantonments with the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) after the comprehensive peace agreement (CPA, 2006). The UN Mission in Nepal discharged underaged PLA from the cantonments, tagging them as "disqualified" from integration into the national army. Lenin and his group of young PLA launched a struggle against the then government and the UN against their removal from the cantonments, and formed a National Struggle Committee, later forming an organisation called Discharged PLA Nepal against the label “disqualified”. He has led the struggle for fellow child soldiers for their rights and dignity and a petition at the Supreme Court. The Court recently ruled on his petition, ordering the government to recognize the recruitment of child soldiers as a war crime and include their agenda in the transitional justice processes. Lenin was actively involved in the Gen-z movement and he advocates for a justice and accountability agenda. He is currently a Mphil student at Tribhuvan University’s history department.