Bijaya Khadka

Bijaya Khadka is a Bhutanese refugee human rights activist, community organizer, and founding member of Peace Initiative Bhutan, based in Rochester, New York. After resettling in the United States in 2009, Khadka has dedicated his career to advocacy for refugee rights and community bridge-building, founding House of Refuge USA and serving as Chair of the New American Advisory Council in Rochester.

Displacement and Resettlement

Bijaya Khadka is a Lhotshampa who was displaced from Bhutan during the Bhutanese refugee crisis. He spent years in the refugee camps in Nepal before resettling in Rochester, New York, in 2009 through the UNHCR third-country resettlement program.

Advocacy and Community Work

Peace Initiative Bhutan

Khadka is a founding member of Peace Initiative Bhutan (PIB), an organization that works toward peaceful resolution of the Bhutanese refugee crisis and advocates for the rights of the displaced Lhotshampa population. PIB brings together diaspora members committed to pursuing justice through nonviolent advocacy and dialogue, maintaining international attention on the unresolved dimensions of the crisis even as the resettlement program has concluded.

House of Refuge USA

Khadka founded House of Refuge USA, an organization that supports refugee communities in the Rochester area. The organization provides resources and advocacy for newly arrived refugees navigating the challenges of American life, drawing on Khadka's own experience of resettlement to inform its services.

Refugee-Police Relations

One of Khadka's most significant contributions has been his work bridging the gap between refugee communities and law enforcement in Rochester. Recognizing that cultural differences, language barriers, and — for many refugees — traumatic past experiences with state security forces could create distrust and miscommunication between refugee communities and American police, Khadka has facilitated dialogue and relationship-building between the two groups. This work has included cultural competency training, community forums, and the establishment of communication channels that help prevent misunderstandings and build mutual trust.^[1]

New American Advisory Council

As Chair of the New American Advisory Council, Khadka has served as a representative of Rochester's immigrant and refugee communities in civic decision-making. The role involves advising local government and institutions on policies and practices that affect the city's growing population of new Americans, ensuring that the perspectives and needs of refugee communities are represented in local governance.

Human Rights Advocacy

Khadka has continued to advocate publicly for accountability regarding human rights violations committed against the Lhotshampa by the Bhutanese government. He has spoken and written about Bhutan's continued suppression of information about the ethnic cleansing, arguing that the international community's perception of Bhutan as a peaceful Shangri-La obscures the reality of the country's treatment of its southern Bhutanese population.^[2]

References

1. Rochester Beacon. "Bridging the gap between refugees and the police." November 2022. https://rochesterbeacon.com/2022/11/28/bridging-the-gap-between-refugees-and-the-police/
2. Rochester Beacon. "Bhutan's dark secret: Human rights violations continue." May 2023. https://rochesterbeacon.com/2023/05/01/bhutans-dark-secret-human-rights-violations-continue/
3. Bijaya Khadka. Official website. https://www.bijayakhadka.com/