Women Activists Detained For Demanding Say in Constitution

June 18,2006 - (Khaleej Times) Over two dozen women activists demanding representation in the committee set up to draft an interim statute to replace the present constitution were detained by the police Sunday, witnesses said.The government and the Maoists on Friday decided to set up a five- member committee headed by pro-democracy activist and former Nepalese Supreme Court judge Lman Prasad Aryal.

The all-male statute-drafting team is expected to submit a draft of the new interim statute within the next two weeks.
The interim statute is expected to replace the present constitution and pave the way for the dissolution of the restored parliament and the formation of an all-party interim government including the Maoists.

The women, demanding one third of the seats in the drafting panel, staged protests in front of the country’s Central Secretariat from where over two dozen were arrested.The Nepalese Government, in what was said to be a “historic” commitment, told parliament in the last week of May that the government would reserve 33 per cent of the seats in all government agencies and institutions for women.

The Maoists have also been pledging all-out cooperation on issues relating to women and other deprived classes.
The protest Sunday was participated in by women affiliated with the Seven-Party Alliance (SPA) that is presently in power in Nepal.Talking to newsmen, senior leader Bidhya Bhandari of the communist United Marxist-Leninists said the protest would go on until the SPA and Maoists “corrected their mistake” and decided to give at least 30-per-cent representation in the drafting committee to women.

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