CEDAW PROTOCOL CAN DELIVER JUSTICE TO NEPALI WOMEN
By Seema A. Adhikari

January 20, 2002 – (Kathmandu Post) Nepali women will soon be able to submit complaints on gender discrimination directly to the United Nations if they do not get justice in their own country.

In this regard, the Optional Protocol to Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), was forwarded recently to the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs.

Nepal signed the Protocol, intended to provide access to justice for Nepali women at the international level on December 18, 2001. Nepal is the second SAARC country after Bangladesh to sign the protocol. But the Parliament is yet to ratify it, but is likely to do so soon, say gender activists.

The government of Nepal has already accepted the first optional rights under International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and has shown commitment on gender equality as specified in the constitution. The advocates therefore, say that the government is bound to ratify the convention.

Sapana Pradhan Malla the advocate at the Forum for Women, Law and Development says women right activists and organisations are lobbying the government to ratify it at the earliest.

'There are lots of discriminatory laws in our country that need to be eliminated, so the ratification is very much essential in Nepal's context. This protocol once ratified by the Cabinet will get a status similar to that of national law,' says Malla.

The Optional Protocol to CEDAW will enable all Nepali women for the first time to submit gender-related complaints directly to the United Nations if they don't get heard in their home country. The women can complain to the body concerned at the United Nations either individually or in-groups.

The UN General Assembly adopted the 21- article Optional Protocol at the CEDAW Convention on October 6, 1999. In the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995, governments had committed to ratify the Optional Protocol. So far, 73 nations have signed the protocol while only 28 have ratified it, though 168 governments have ratified the CEDAW Convention.

Significantly, the United States of America is not a signatory to the protocol.

Dr Shanta Thapaliya, the advocate at the Legal Aid Consultancy Center (LACC), says that Nepal has signed the protocol even though there are still several discriminatory laws existing in the country.

Pointing to the case of India, she said it first formulated its own national laws against discrimination of women before it signed the protocol.

Activists and advocates say once the protocol is ratified by the government, all violations against women will be judged on the basis of CEDAW.

The protocol was forwarded to the Ministry of Law by the Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare. Though it still has to go through various processes, activists say the protocol will be ratified within a few months.

From: http://www.mahilaweb.org/footer/news/jan_02/kathmandu_post.htm