{"id":4096,"date":"2015-09-21T20:33:24","date_gmt":"2015-09-21T14:48:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pahichan.com\/?p=4096"},"modified":"2015-09-21T20:33:24","modified_gmt":"2015-09-21T14:48:24","slug":"nepals-new-constitution-includes-sexual-and-gender-minority-rights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/nepals-new-constitution-includes-sexual-and-gender-minority-rights\/","title":{"rendered":"Nepal\u2019s New Constitution Includes Sexual And Gender Minority Rights"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kathmandu\/Pahichan – The Constituent Assembly of Nepal has approved with overwhelming majority a new constitution that, among others, includes mention of equal rights for gender and sexual minorities. Nepal has been under an interim constitution since 2007 when a prolonged civil insurgency resulted in the fall of the monarchy. The new constitution is expected to come into force on September 20th<\/sup>, following presidential assent. Being the fundamental law of the land, provisions of all existing laws inconsistent with the new Constitution would become void.<\/p>\n

This is the first time ever that the constitution of Nepal has included rights of gender and sexual minorities in the context of fundamental rights. The phrase \u2018gender and sexual minority\u2019 is mentioned in two places:\u00a0 Article 18 (right to equality) and Article 42 (social justice). \u2018Gender identity\u2019 is mentioned in Article 12 (citizenship ID). Several other articles are written in a gender neutral language.<\/p>\n

Article 12 (Citizenship ID) of the new constitution states that \u201cpeople have the right to have citizenship ID that reflects their gender identity\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Article 18 (Right to Equality) covers rights to equality and covers \u2018gender and likely other grounds\u2019 against discrimination while stating that \u201cthe State will not discriminate against any citizens based on origin, religion, race, caste, tribe, gender, language or ideological conviction or likely any other status.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

This article also lists \u2018gender and sexual minority people\u2019 among disadvantaged groups that are recognized by the constitution, stating that\u00a0 \u201cNothing shall be deemed to prevent the making of special provisions by law for the protection, empowerment or advancement of the interests of socially and culturally disadvantaged women, Dalits, indigenous peoples, tribes, Madhesi, Tharu, Muslim, ethnic minorities, backward classes, minorities, marginalized, farmers, workers, youth, children, senior citizens, gender and sexual minorities, handicapped persons, pregnant persons, disabled or helpless, people of backward regions and economically disadvantaged citizens.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

This article also replaces language in the old constitution that references \u2018male and female\u2019 and \u2018son or daughter\u2019 with gender neutral terminology.<\/p>\n

Article 42 (Social Justice) lists \u2018gender and sexual minorities,\u2019 among groups that will have right to participate in state mechanisms and public services based on the \u2018principle of inclusion.\u2019<\/p>\n

The new constitution however, has toned down significantly some of the rights pertaining to LGBT individuals that were envisaged in the original draft. The draft passed by the first Constituent Assembly contained specific provisions related to the welfare\u00a0of gender and sexual minorities \u2013 the directive principles of the state contained a clause stating that the \u201cstate would invest to uplift the socioeconomic condition of gender and sexual minorities\u201d. Another clause related to marriage \u2013 \u201cevery one to have a right to marry and form a family\u201d \u2013 has also been dropped. The terms \u2018sexual orientation and gender identity\u2019 were found to be contentious by many members of the second Constituent Assembly, with even bureaucrats and lawyers clamouring for toning down the \u2018NGO led Western terminology\u2019 to a more constitutionally appropriate one. A consensus arrived that \u2018gender\u2019 as an umbrella term would cover all gender and sexual minorities.<\/p>\n

Article 17 (right to freedom) states that no one shall be deprived of \u2018personal freedom\u2019, a term which can be interpreted\u00a0to be the closest to \u2018freedom to marry\u2019 and \u2018form a family\u2019 even though there is no specific sanction or stricture against it. While the rights have been significantly watered down, the new Constitution nevertheless caps years of uncertainty and political wrangling over its provisions and establishes the principle of \u2018identity\u2019 and \u2018no discrimination\u2019. A consequence of this would be that the existing \u2018civil and criminal code\u2019, which has provisions for criminalizing same sex marriage, would need to be suitably amended.<\/p>\n

Sunil Babu Pant, a pioneer in advancing LGBT rights in Nepal, says, \u201cWhen compared with the status\u00a0of gender and sexual minorities in the Asian region, it is phenomenal that Nepal is actively embracing them. Our rights have been recognized. But we understand that\u00a0this is just the beginning and\u00a0there is a long way to go before we can achieve full equality and mainstreaming of gender and sexual minorities in Nepal. We need to work hard and increase advocacy efforts to include the right to marry for gender and sexual minorities in the upcoming civil code. We look forward to working with fellow Nepalis for building a new, inclusive and prosperous Nepal.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kathmandu\/Pahichan – The Constituent Assembly of Nepal has approved with overwhelming majority a new constitution that, among others, includes mention of equal rights for gender and sexual minorities. Nepal has been under an interim constitution since 2007 when a prolonged civil insurgency resulted in the fall of the monarchy. The new constitution is expected to come into force on September 20th, following presidential assent. Being the fundamental law of the land, provisions of all existing laws inconsistent with the new Constitution would become void.
\nThis is the first time ever that …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":4093,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[621,492,490],"tags":[541,695,663,157],"class_list":["post-4096","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-opinion","category-slider","tag-constituent-assembly","tag-gender-and-sexual-minorities","tag-gender-identity","tag-sunil-babu-pant"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4096","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4096"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4096\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4097,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4096\/revisions\/4097"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}