The Maoist government of Nepal came to power in 2008 after the special assembly voted to create a new constitution and a new form of government, thereby dismantling the more than two-hundred-year-old Hindu monarchy. Leaders said they would improve the situation of women’s human rights in the country by eliminating discrimination based on gender, but activists still face significant risks for their work, according to Amnesty International. Amnesty discovered that two women’s rights activists have been murdered; one in January 2009 and one in June 2008, and there have been no attempts to investigate or prosecute. After the 2008 murder, the government created a task on violence against women, but it has yet to release a report. The United Nations Mission in Nepal reported that as of 2007, NGOs assisting victims of sexual violence were often attacked.
Nepal ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women in 1991 with no reservations, and ratified the Optional Protocol, also with no reservations, in 2007. In its two reports to the CEDAW Committee, the government of Nepal said it was working to combat violence against women “through preventive, communicative, and rehabilitative measures” as well as punitive action. (Cited in: Nepal Combined Second and Third Reports, CEDAW/C/NPL/2-3, Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, 7 April 2003).
Compiled from: Nepal: Government fails to protect women human rights activists from violent attacks, Amnesty International, 10 April 2009; Nepal Elects a Maoist to Be the Prime Minister, New York Times, 15 August 2008; Electoral thunderbolt for Nepal, BBC News, 15 April 2008; Declarations, Reservations and Objections to CEDAW, United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women, last accessed 20 April 2009; Nepal Combined Second and Third Reports, CEDAW/C/NPL/2-3, Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, 7 April 2003; End Violence Against Women: OHCHR-Nepal, United Nations Mission in Nepal, 1 December 2007.