Upasana Khatri

Senior Attorney

Upasana Khatri (she/her) is a Senior Attorney with CIEL’s Climate and Energy Program. Her work focuses on supporting climate litigation and accountability efforts in close collaboration with CIEL’s civil society partners and the communities they support.

Before joining CIEL, Upasana was a Staff Attorney at the Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights. In that role, she advocated for the safety and wellbeing of unaccompanied and separated immigrant children in government custody while helping them navigate the complex world of the U.S. immigration system. Prior to that, Upasana worked for several years at EarthRights International, first as a Bertha Justice Fellow with the U.S. legal team and subsequently as a Staff Attorney with the Amazon office in Lima, Peru. At EarthRights, Upasana helped implement various litigation, advocacy, and policy tools and strategies to support rural and indigenous communities in advancing their rights and seeking redress for environmental harms and human rights abuses.

Upasana was born in Nepal and grew up in Silver Spring, Maryland. She received her J.D. from American University Washington College of Law and holds a B.A. in Environmental Studies from Davidson College. Upasana is a member of the State Bar of New York. She has experience advocating before both U.S. federal courts and the Inter-American human rights system.

Upasana can be reached at ukhatri@ciel.org