Gender and Social Inclusion

All seven political parties (Nepali Congress, CPN-UML, CPN Maoist, CPN Unified Socialist, Rastriya Swatantra Party, Rastriya Prajatantra Party, Janata Samajbadi Party and Janamat Party) that crossed the threshold of 3% total votes cast under Party-list Proportional Representation System submitted the list of nominated candidates to the Election Commission. Two advocates, Yuvaraj Poudel and Rabi Raj Bastola filed the writ petition against the current Minister of Home Affairs, Rabi Lamichhane at the Supreme Court with a claim that Lamichhane hadn’t renounced his Nepali citizenship when he received his American Citizenship.

Timeline of Major Events

Date	Events
10 December	International Human Rights Day and also the end of the 16 days of activism against gender-based violence
14 December	Writ petition filed against Rabi Lamichhane arguing he is not Nepali citizen

Controversy Regarding Home Minister Lamichhane’s Citizenship

Two advocates, Yuvaraj Poudel and filed the writ petition against the current Minister of Home Affairs, Rabi Lamichhane at the Supreme Court. The petition claimed that Lamichhane hadn’t renounced his Nepali citizenship when he received his American Citizenship; and while he claimed to have renounced his American Citizenship later, he went on to use the same old Nepali citizenship. The petition also demanded Rabi Lamichhane to be removed from his recent post as the Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister of Home Affairs.

According to the Section 10 (1 and 2) of the Citizenship Act 2006, any Nepali taking up foreign citizenship will automatically lose their citizenship of Nepal. As per protocol, once he/she has obtained the foreign citizenship, they need to inform the Nepali Ambassador in the foreign country and must submit a copy of the Nepali citizenship.

Are we aware about the Human Rights?

December 10 is marked as the International Human Rights Day. Since 1948, this day is being celebrated so, after the United Nations adopted the document brought by 30 nations to recognize that all human beings have inalienable rights. This day is celebrated every year with the different slogans, while the slogan for this year was, ‘dignity, freedom and justice for all.’
 
The United Declarations of Human Rights (UDHR) has enumerated 30 rights. Those 30 rights include civil and political rights of the human beings like right to vote, freedom of expression, right to life, liberty and privacy and so on. If one observes the context of Nepal, the constitution of Nepal, 2072 has also guaranteed the protection of civil and political rights and it also includes the protection of the economic, social and cultural rights of the citizens.
 
Despite of all these rights included in the constitutions and in the documents of the UDHR, the citizens are still found to be deprived of their rights. The discrimination on the basis of caste, class, and gender are still rampant. Even though the government has declared the practice of Chaaupadi and Dowry system as illegal, these cultures are still been in practice. Many of the people are still not able to get the citizenship and are deprived of the rights and opportunities as a citizen of the country. Therefore, while celebrating the Human Rights Day, we should be pondering upon where we lack as the government and citizen of Nepal to equally distribute the rights to the people.
 
Likewise, December 10 also marks the last day of the 16 days activism against the gender-based violence. Since 2000, the 16 days of activism against Gender Based Violence has become the annual campaign which is observed from 25^th November marking the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women – 10^th December marking the International Human Rights Day. This activism also has different slogan each year. The slogan for this year’s 16 days activism was, “The identity of a civilized society: Activism against gender- based violence.” The gender-based violence is another thing that has been reported number of times in the case of Nepal. According to the report of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the cases of gender-based violence got significantly increased during the Covid -19 and it was not just in the case of Nepal but in the overall world.  Hence, this shows how pathetic the situation is all over the world.
 

Positive Initiation from the Election Commission

All seven political parties (Nepali Congress, CPN-UML, CPN Maoist, CPN Unified Socialist, Rastriya Swatantra Party, Rastriya Prajatantra Party, Janata Samajbadi Party and Janamat Party) that crossed the threshold of 3% total votes cast under Party-list Proportional Representation System submitted the list of nominated candidates to the Election Commission.
The Election Commission had strictly said that if the political parties failed to represent the women, minorities and backward classes in the PR list then such list won’t be accepted by the commission. The Proportional Representation System in the Constitution of Nepal is envisioned to ensure proportionate representation of historically marginalized communities in the parliament.
 
Although the Proportional Representation System is thought to bring representation to all citizens, the reality is often not true. Marginalized communities are still deprived of many opportunities, be it education, job or constitutional rights. The system could bring voices inside the parliament from all communities by ensuring their proportional representation. However, the parties have been rigging the system for their political gain, often by using it in a perfunctory manner.
 
Not just the representation minorities and the backward classes but the Election Commission should also plan to include the representation from LGBTIQ+ communities. LGBTIQ+ community is still found to be left out in the context of Nepal.