Nepal women for 33% quota in Constituent Assembly
Women politicians have demanded reservation for themselves in the Constituent Assembly, which at present has no female members.
Women political leaders in Nepal have demanded 33 per cent reservation for themselves in the Constituent Assembly (CA).
The leaders, who alleged that they were avoided during the ongoing peace process in the country, warned that they would launce a strong movement if political parties failed to ensure 33 per cent reservation.
It may be noted that the 32-member peace committee has no female member.
"We will no more tolerate such patriarchal and autocratic attitudes of political parties.
Instead, we will bring hundreds of thousands of women to the streets if parties fail to ensure 33 per cent seats for women in the CA," Kantipur daily quoted Uma Adhikari, vice-president of Inter Party Women's Alliance (IPWA) and central committee member of Nepali Congress (Democratic), as saying.
"The issue of 33 per cent should be clearly mentioned in the Interim Constitution," she added.
IPWA had led the street movement during June this year to press the government to implement a House resolution on 33 per cent women's participation in all state mechanisms.
As a consequence of the movement, four women were inducted in the Interim Statue Drafting Committee.
The women activists have also pledged to work together to press their demand.
"We too have to take the challenge of enhancing ourselves with better knowledge and updating ourselves," a leader said.
She said that the advocacy should be on the basis of several human rights instruments to which the country is party.
Sangeeta Thapa, Nepal coordinator of UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) said her party was committed for the advocacy and lobby, starting from the grassroots level to make the concerned implement 33 per cent resolution on women, especially to have at least 33 per cent women in CA.
"We will also launch several types of training to empower women to make them competent to fight the election and also to cast votes on their own, so that they will not have to follow what the male members of the family say," she said.