Nepal

Around twenty-five different women associations in Nepal voiced their concerns with the lack of adequate representation of women in the interim government.
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The Coordinator of Governmental Talks Team Ramchandra Poudel said government had positively taken the demand placed by women representatives for women's proportional representation in each sector of the state and it would help in building of inclusive system of governance.
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Women leaders and women’s rights activists submitted a memorandum to the government demanding the inclusion of women in the list of 26 Constituent Assembly (CA) members to be nominated by the cabinet.
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In the 2007-2010 interim plan the government incorporated gender empowerment targets. To mainstream gender in national development policies, the Nepali government introduced a gender responsive budgeting (GRB) system in the fiscal year 2007-08.
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Women rights campaigners and political activists have said women politicians in Nepal suffer from violence of one form or the other. Speaking at an interaction programme on 'Spectrum of Violence against Women' organised in the capital on Thursday, the activists deplored the prevalence of violence against women in Nepali society, underlining the need to increase the participation of women to fight discriminations. According to them, domestic violence accounts for 80 percent of violence against women.

National Network for Beijing review Nepal (NNBN) today said it had prepared an NGO Report on Beijing+15 Review revolving around the prevalence of the problem, key gains, existing gaps, emerging issues, and key recommendations in the 12 critical areas of concern of Beijing Platform for Action (BPFA).
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Women in the Asia Pacific region have the lowest rates of representation in politics, employment and property ownership, a new report presented by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has revealed.The Asia Pacific Human Development report on gender, which was made public on the occasion of the 100th International Women’s Day today, revealed that women in the Asia Pacific region are socially, physically and economically backward and the progress remains slow particularly in South Asia.

"The problem is not in the laws but in the mindsets of government employees entrusted with the responsibility of issuing citizenship cards. They cannot imagine a women’s identity independent of a man," said the FLWD’s Meera Dhungana.

Experiences like Thapa’s are far from uncommon in the capital Kathmandu, and sure to be even more so in the interiors of Nepal. Ninety percent of Nepalis live in villages and many are born at home, so they are unlikely to have birth documents.

With one-third women in the Constituent Assembly (CA), the gender issues are likely to get prominence not only in the Constitution, but also in the state mechanism. However, women leaders still believe that their participation in the CA is only a foundation to build a gender equal society and that continuous efforts are required to keep this on the right track.