NATIONAL 5 (Spotlight Weekly)]

The Discrimination Continues

A latest study says discriminatory laws exist in the country against women

By A CORRESPONDENT

Even after a decade of promulgation of the democratic constitution of the country that vows equal rights between men and women, discriminatory laws exist and are being practiced in Nepal, says a study. According to the report entitled "Discriminatory Laws in Nepal and their Impact on Women: A review of the current situation and proposal for change" prepared by Forum of Women, Law and Development, laws in the country still discriminate women on issues such as citizenship, inheritance of property, access to education, employment, health, marriage, family, legal and court proceedings. The report claimed that has there are 118 Clauses and 67 Schedules in 54 different laws in Nepal which have discriminatory provisions against women.

Women activists at a seminar : Struggle goes on

The report said more than 90 percent of the respondents questioned during the research agreed that laws on citizenship, marriage and divorce were discriminatory against women. Dr. Krishna B. Bhattachan, a sociologist and research consultant of the report, stressed that the impact of discriminatory laws against women did exist in economic, social, political, psychological and legal front. Added advocate Sapna Pradhan Malla, who coordinated the report, ìdue to the presence of discriminatory laws in citizenship, women have been forced to think about themselves as second class citizens. Discriminatory laws in trafficking and sexual abuse encourage people involved in trafficking as there is no provision of punishment to the culprit.î Girls are being deprived from education particularly due to discriminatory laws on the property rights, discriminatory laws have encouraged bigamy and women are still not trusted in legal and issues that deal with court, said Malla.

A study showed that out of 1693 cases at the Supreme Court, from the year 1991-1998, the cases decided on women's behalf were 324.

The report said that though Nepal was a party to 16 international human rights conventions including Convention on the elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the provisions in the convention were not being implemented at the national level. The report further said all the major political parties made several commitments during the last three elections since 1990 but none of them came up with effective programs to materialize them.

So, what could be done? The report has recommended that implementation of international human rights instruments, amendment of discriminatory laws, replacement of Civil Code 1963 with new codes would go a long way in making Nepali women-- who constitute more than 50 percent of the countryís population-- equal before law and in the society.