Nepal - Universal Periodic Review

UPR 37, January 21, 2020
Recommendations by Canada

Background

Nepal’s 2015 Constitution established a federal democratic republic with a modern bill of rights and a commitment towards pluralism, the rule of law, representative government, and social and economic justice. The Constitution allocates 33 percent of elected parliamentary seats to women, a measure that has been implemented with partial success. Nepal also maintains a record of relatively progressive legal protections for marginalized communities such as LGBT2QI persons, women and girls, and Dalits.

While Nepal has made significant advances in gender equality, discriminatory provisions in the Constitution limit women’s autonomy with regard to nationality and the ability to transmit citizenship through marriage and to their children. NGOs have also expressed concern with the Citizenship Act Amendment Bill 2020, which similarly restricts a woman’s right to confer Nepali citizenship on her children and spouse.

Nepal has taken important steps in recent years to set up transitional justice bodies to help deliver truth, justice and reparations for victims of human rights violations and abuses during its 1996-2006 conflict. However, with more than 65,000 unresolved complaints of human rights violations and abuses, progress in holding perpetrators accountable has stalled. The government has also yet to amend Nepal’s transitional justice law after a 2015 Supreme Court ruling found that it could be used to provide amnesties to those responsible for grave abuses.

Nepal’s Constitution guarantees freedom of expression. However, there have been cases of arbitrary arrest of journalists and artists under laws such as the Electronic Transactions Act 2006. In addition, the Information Technology Bill, Media Council Bill and Mass Communications Bill before parliament, risks curtailing freedom of expression and privacy rights.

Finally, while remittances from Nepali migrant workers are crucial to Nepal’s socio-economic development, contributing approximately 30 percent of Nepal’s GDP, many workers are the victims of abuse and exploitation in Nepal and destination countries.

Recommendations

Thank you, Madam President.

Canada welcomes the positive steps taken by Nepal since 2015 to ban harmful practices towards women and girls, and making torture and enforced disappearances illegal as distinct crimes in domestic law.

Canada recommends that Nepal:

1. Bring the Commission on Investigation of Disappeared Persons, Truth and Reconciliation Act in line with the Supreme Court’s ruling of February 26, 2015 to deliver meaningful results on truth, justice and reconciliation.
2. Uphold respect for freedom of expression and th right to privacy, including in draft legislation regulating information technology, media and mass communications.
3. Ensure full equality between men and women with respect to conferring citizenship on their children and spouse, including by amending provisions in the Constitution and Citizenship Act Amendment Bill 2020.
4. Undertake further measures to prevent the exploitation and abuse of Nepali migrant workers, including by implementing the 2018 recommendations of the UN Special Rapporteur on migrants.

Canada welcomes Nepal’s substantial progress towards the achievement of the SDGs, including reducing the incidence of poverty, infant, maternal and child mortality, and increasing access to clean water and sanitation. The Right to Food and Food Sovereignty Act (2018) is an important step towards achieving Nepal’s goal of ‘zero hunger’ by 2025.