INSEC was founded in 1988 by inexorable HR defender late Prakash Kaphley and prominent HR activist Sushil Pyakurel. Started with the objective of protecting the rights of people engaged in informal sectors, it has significantly contributed in protecting and promoting the fundamental rights of people in virtually all sectors. The efforts made during its early days made effective contributions in institutionalizing the democratic polity in the nation from a rights-based approach, both at the policy and grassroots levels, especially after the restoration of democracy in 1990/91.

Immediately after the inception, INSEC implemented a programme targeting the cart pushers of the Kathmandu valley. Fundamentally, the programme sought to protect their economic rights through study, advocacy and campaigning for ensuring appropriate labor wage to the cart pushers. In course of time, INSEC has gradually identified its core competency areas which are organizing campaigns, victims’ reparation, reconciliation, awareness creation and education programs for making people capable of asserting their civil and political rights and documentation of human rights situation of the country and its dissemination at national and international arenas. Education, monitoring, lobbying, advocacy, research and training on issues related to human rights have been major regular undertakings for INSEC for more than a decade already.

As human rights NGO, INSEC is focused towards working with disadvantaged groups. Its targeted working groups have been the agricultural laborers, conflict victims’, underprivileged women, and socially discriminated people including Dalits and children.