Alternative Justice Resolution
Free Courts Of Burden

By Mukti Rijal

COURTS are clogged with mounting arrears of cases. The Supreme Court of Nepal alone has over thirty thousand cases lying unsettled. Similarly the district courts are also said to be riddled with case burden. Though some district courts are reported to have disposed of cases to ease the load their number is few and limited. In some districts the courts have started to have few cases registered particularly owing to the security problems. However, these sporadic and extra judicial events do not lead to the solution of the problems.

Competent

Justice to the people have to be delivered through competent organ of judiciary. Problems like the increasing case load and threatening social situations exist. These have indeed impeded the process of justice delivery through competent and legitimate organ of judiciary. Moreover, there is also the persisting concern as to the effectiveness and efficiency of remedy granted by the court of law. The justice handed by the court is based on law and evidence.

Charles Dickens a famous novelist wrote of the problems associated with the justice administration system which is often quoted in legal documents. He wrote "In the high court of chancery, the solicitors are mostly engaged in one of the ten thousand stages of an endless cause, tripping one another up on slippery precedents, groping knee deep in technicalities and making a pretence of equity with serious faces…This is the court of chancery which so exhausts finances, patience, courage, hope so overthrows the brain and breaks the heart. Suffer any wrong that can be done to you rather than come here" This eloquent description of the courthouses by the famous novelist some one and half a century ago provides the truest depiction of the situation obtaining in our part of the world.
The inefficiency and complexity of the court system has led to the maximised use of the alternative justice system. The use and adoption of alternative justice system is very developed in the United States of America. Even the companies in the US have developed and implemented alternative dispute resolution techniques so that the affected or the complaining party is not required to move to the court for adjudication. The corporate sector use alternative dispute resolution programmes to handle complaints and disputes involving customers, franchises, employees and others. Such programmes include multilevel review by peers of the employees, confidential employees advisors, ombudspersons, voluntary arbitration and third party mediation programmes. The alternative dispute resolution procedures have proven to be a relatively inexpensive and expeditious alternative to litigation. They include mechanisms that are perceived as fair, impartial and procedurally adequate.
Alternative dispute resolution process has become very popular in India and other countries in South Asia as well. The alternative dispute resolution embraces only those process in which decision finally arrived at is with the consent of the parties. It appears to be an appropriate word to denote modes of dispute resolution in which parties retain their freedom to decide the outcome of their dispute. Amicable settlement offers disputants opportunities to participate in the process and empowers them to be creative in solving their own problems. Settlement is more likely to result from the parties becoming better informed about the dispute and the risks involved if the matter were to proceed to binding court adjudication. In the event that they have freedom to decide an outcome for themselves they will be more committed to the outcome. Their ongoing relationship is less likely to be adversely affected or jeopardised.

Amicable settlement through recourse to alternative dispute resolution thus enables the parties to resolve the irritants themselves and bury the past. It not only preserves present relationship but sets stage for a better future. It should not be interpreted as a compromise at any cost but a reasonable compromise as a key element.

Concept

In Nepal alternative dispute resolution has not received the due consideration it should have got for justice and harmony. Although there are provisions for settlement of disputes at the prelitigative stage not much has been done to bring it into practice. The Local Self Governance Act 1999 has for the first time introduced the concept of mediation at the local level but its implementation has been subject to authority of the government. The government has not yet lifted the embargo for its implementation through publication of notice in the Nepal Gazette. It is high time the government took step to do needful to implement the provisions so that the overburdened courts are freed from the load and both justice and harmony are realised at the local level.

Education: Catalyst For Women's Empowerment

By Sanu Maiya Pradhan

LITERACY is the first step of development. A literate person can move ahead successfully in every sector of life. Lteracy is the first way to gain knowledge and skill in order to involve in development works like education, health, cleanliness, family planning, environment protection and agriculture Globally there are 862 million illiterate adults. Women illiteracy excludes them from participating in the society.

Progress

Nepal had made significant progress in the education sectors. However, 46 per cent of the total population are in illiterate. The latest figures show the country's literacy rate at 54 per cent with men literacy at 65 and at women at 43. This literacy rate indicates that Nepal is unlikely to meet the target of 50 per cent improvement in level of adult literacy unless it accelerates literacy and educational activities.

The education and discipline should go side by side for the prosperity of the country. Women's education is necessary for all round social development. Empowering women mean empowering nation. Therefore, the government and the development agencies should work effectively in educating girl child if a sustainable development is to be achieved. As an educated mother means an educated family. Education for girls leads to the overall development in the long run thereby building up their confidence and enabling them to make decisions about their lives.

Education is a key factor to improving the living standard of women and expediting development activities. Every segment of the society should be attentive as to how more women can be educated. Education provides the foundation for all round growth of an individual.

Poverty has hampered the spread of education in the country. There are many instances of parents not enrolling their children in schools but make them contribute in some way or the other to family income. Despite primary education being free, the enrolment rate is low. Moreover the dropout rate is alarming. Low enrolment, high level of failure and dropout rates among girls students are generally attributed to household work burden, irregularity of school operation, poverty, physical distance to schools, casts and ethnic discrimination, negligence of mother tongue in schooling and their parents disinclination towards education. Basic education, particularly of girls is unquestionably a key to reduce poverty significantly. It gives young women a sense of personal empowerment and self-confidence to make decisions that affect their lives. Education helps improve gender disparity encourage to take and share in democracy and economic development. It has been realised that educated women want few children and become able to care for their children. The educated girls and mothers play key role in family planning and reducing child mortality rates.

Ignorance is another reason why the rural women have high fertility. They do not know about the advantages of contraceptives and health care facilities. They do not want to use them. Many of them refuse to take permanent birth control measures because of their misconception. The government has to give more emphasis on health education. Due to inadequate knowledge and misunderstanding about sexuality and reproductive health (SRH) problems of early marriage early and frequent child bearing, unsafe abortion and sexually transmitted infection and HIV/AIDS have increased in the country. The women need access to SRH information, education and services. SRH is the right of women to lead healthy and fulfilling sexual lives. SRH is the requirement of women because they fear and feel shy about sex. To overcome this problem awareness among the women about sex should be created.

The society with conservative bearings has hampered the development process. The need therefore, has arisen for women themselves to join hands and break the shackles of discrimination that persists despite the fact that the constitution say otherwise. Lack of proper education has contributes to the low participation of women in civil service. The development of women on par with men should begin with educational development in the family.

Nepalese women are simply not equipped with skills essential to play their rightful role in the economy as a major work force. While a host of remedies are required to improve women's access to opportunities, education is a necessary intervention. Only education can equip them to take advantages of globalisation. Only education can bring them into main stream. The poor living conditions and the margnalised status that they have will definitely work against them when it comes to taking advantages of globalisation.

The returns in comparison to the investment being made in the education sector is nominal due to socio-economic, political and geographical condition of the country. The objective of 'imparting education for all programme' aimed at extending standard education to all by 2015. Education for all schemes should be implemented giving special priority for women and economically backward population.

Change

Therefore free education for girls up to higher secondary level, sex education for school children should be provided. Systematic planning process and management are required to make the education for all programme, a success whether it may be mass-oriented or selective programme. The main aim in giving education should be in improving the quality of life and living standards of the targeted people in general and community in particular. Women would be given emphasis in the tenth plan as an agent of change for bringing about advancement in women's health, education and income generation.

Capitalists In Communist Party, A Big Shift

By RRS

SAY it is a metamorphosis in the history of the Chinese Communist Party. From Chairman Mao's call to bombard the headquarters of the bourgeoisie to Jiang's theory to enlist the capitalists into the giant communist party, it is a big shift! Now the Chinese Communist Party is no more a party of peasants and workers alone.

Between them lies Deng's line of modernising China through open up policy.

Mao's new democracy, Deng's economic reform and Jiang's Three Represents have been theories of modern China since 1945 when China ushered into a new era.

If Marx and Mao were alive today, they would have certainly raised their eyebrows on Jiang's Three Represents that mean enlisting peasants, workers and capitalists in Mao's proletariats' party. President Jiang, who is also the general secretary of the Chinese Communist party, has called the delegates to support and endorse his theory in the ongoing party's 16th congress in Beijing. His call for the inclusion of the business people in the communist party is likely to be endorsed by the biggest gathering of the party.

When Mao led China to a new democracy revolution some fifty years ago, it was almost impossible for the bourgeois to get a place in his party. He even called cadres to bombard the headquarters of the reactionaries during so-called Cultural Revolution, which also witnessed killings of many innocents. During Mao's long rule, China followed a hard core socialist economy. Although he led impoverished China into a modern and prosperous one, China remained closed to the outside world.

When Deng Xiao Ping held the reins of the Chinese Communist Party and government, he opened the locks of the Mao's China and opened it to the outside world. His economic reforms took China to a new height. Now, China has emerged as a superpower - both in economic and military terms. The credit for this goes to Deng, whose theory was a major shift from that of Mao.

But Jiang's theory- Three Represents in the Party Charter- is certainly a drastic departure from the original philosophy of communism. This certainly denies Marx's Communist Manifesto, Lenin's State and Revolution and Mao's New Democracy. Like his predecessors, Jiang strongly ruled out the landing of the multi-party polity in the Chinese mainland. But his embracing of the capitalists is perhaps a new tactic to face the market and global economy. When Deng launched economic reforms, he interpreted it as development of socialism with Chinese characteristics. So, is the case with Jiang. Chinese leadership remained shrewd. After the Berlin Wall came down, Soviet Union collapsed. Other communist regimes of Eastern Europe, too, fell like a house of cards. But China remained unmoved. In the 90s, when the economy in other Asian countries faced a slump, China did not feel a pinch. It is perhaps due to the Chinese leaders' pragmatic policy that saved China from many ups and downs, which shook many nations in the recent history. And it is Jiang, who led China in such a solid direction.

The world's moribund communist movement can learn something from the Chinese liberal communist policy. It can be a lesson for the hardcore Nepalese communists how liberal a communist party should be if they want to lead the country towards peace and prosperity.

Jiang's strong denial of the Western political structure can be a bad news for the pioneers of capitalism, yet they console themselves in Jiang's new innovation that China has finally rolled out a red carpet to the capitalists to be a part of the communist party.