Nepal

Kathmandu, August 3

Stakeholders called for implementation of sexual and reproductive health rights during a workshop — Media Value Clarification — organised in the capital today.

Advocating the issues of sexual and reproductive health rights, speakers at the workshop highlighted the provision of age-appropriate comprehensive sexuality education, legalisation of same sex marriage and setting up of stigma-free and youth-friendly safe abortion services.

Speakers said sexual and reproductive health education must be incorporated from lower classes in the school curriculum. They also raised issues of same sex marriage at the event.

Airing their voice, LGBTIQ activists demanded that same sex marriage be legalised. &Like others, we too want to have our own families. We need partners to share our feelings and emotions.

There should be a legal provision for same sex marriage,& said an LGBTIQ activist.

Speaking about the current legal status of same sex marriage, Joint Secretary at the Ministry of Women, Children and Senior Citizens Rudra Devi Sharma said that there was no legal provision for same sex marriage.

&A committee has submitted its report on same sex marriage. Things will not change overnight. Multiple rounds of discussions are necessary,& she added.

She also highlighted the challenges for implementation of fundamental rights of the LGBTIQ community.

&No one should be discriminated on the basis of sexual orientation,& Sharma said.

Other speakers at the event discussed media advocacy of issues of sexual and reproductive health. Highlighting the legal aspects of safe abortion, Advocate Nabin Shrestha expressed concern about implementation of Safe Motherhood and Reproductive Health Right Act.

The post ‘Implement sexual and reproductive health rights& appeared first on The Himalayan Times.

Gaighat, August 2

Landslides triggered by rains have disrupted vehicular movement along a rural road, causing acute shortage of daily essentials in Tapli and Lingchungbung rural municipalities of Udayapur.

The rural road linking the two local levels is in a sorry state for want of repair. This has led to acute shortage of daily essentials. Food supply has been disrupted for the past three weeks.

Lingchangbung RM has declared it crisis-hit zone and has sought assistance from province and central governments. Rural municipality Chair Major Rai said the local level was announced crisis-hit zone after natural disasters hit peoplelives. &The local level faces scarcity of edible and as well as non-edible commodities as goods have not been imported for a long time,& Rai said.

He said supply of food items was not possible unless the road was repaired. &We have urged the province and central governments to repair the road pronto,& Rai said. It would take more than three months to repair the road and bring it back into operation, according to Rai.

Tapli Rural Municipality Chair Uddawa Singh Thapa said locals were experiencing acute shortage of daily essentials. &Supply of daily essentials has stopped for the past one month,& Thapa said, adding &All the shops have run out of goods.&

Thapa said the local level was not able to repair the road.

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Kathmandu, August 3

The Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration has urged all the local levels to implement the July 29 Cabinet decision regarding dissolution of the Central Child Welfare Board and district child welfare boards.

In response to a letter from the Ministry of Women, Children and Senior Citizens, the MoFAGA recently directed local levels to do the needful for transfer of moveable and immovable property, employees and other liabilities of the previous district child welfare boards to the newly declared local child rights boards. The Council of Ministers had decided to dissolve the CCWB and district child welfare boards replacing them with National Child Rights Board and local child rights board respectively in accordance with the ChildrenRights Act-2018.

The CCWB and district child welfare boards were instituted under the ChildrenAct-1992. According to MoFAGA, a management committee led by mayor of municipality or chairperson of rural municipality located in the concerned headquarters will be formed for deciding on the use and management of property and infrastructure of the previous district child welfare board. The new local child rights boards will function in accordance with the new act. In addition to the NCRB and local child rights boards, the new act has a provision of ChildrenCourt to conduct proceedingd, hearingd and adjudication of offences committed by children.

&Childrenbench shall be formed in each district court to conduct proceedings, hearings and adjudication of offences committed by children until formation of ChildrenCourt,& the law states. If a child below the age of 10 commits an offence, no punishment shall be handed down to him/her.

Similarly, a child between 10 and 14 years of age shall be released after convincing him/her not to repeat such acts in future, as per the law.

In the case of a minorinvolvement in an offence liable to jail sentence, the concerned child aged between 10 and 14 may be imprisoned for a term not exceeding six months or kept in child correction centre for one year.

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Kathmandu, August 3

The number of women and girls filing rape cases with police has increased by more than 50 per cent in fiscal 2018-19.

Activists and police said more girls and women had started coming forward to file rape cases with police.

Growing awareness about sexual rights, education for girls and women and economic freedom, among other factors, encouraged girls and women to file rape cases against perpetrators.

As many as 2,233 cases of rape were reported to police in the fiscal 2018-19, which is significantly higher than 1,480 rape cases reported in fiscal 2017-18. The number was even less in fiscal 2016- 17, when only 1,137 rape cases were reported.

Similarly, the number of rape cases reported during the preceding years was also drastically low.

A total of 981 rape cases were filed in fiscal 2015-16, 912 in 2014-15 and 677 in 2013-14.

Exactly 15 years ago police had recorded only 154 rape cases throughout the country.

Superintendent of Police Shyam Lal Gyanwali at Metropolitan Police Office, Rani Pokhari, said increase in the number of rape cases is due to awareness among women who have become more conscious about reporting the crime.

&Time has changed and women no longer want to hide rape cases or reconcile with perpetrators.& Rita Sah, a women rights activist and civil society member said, adding that rising level of awareness among women and girls backed by their academic qualification had enabled them to file complaints against rape.

Similarly, support from various organisations that work for women and girls had encouraged girls and women to reach out to police.

&Despite the ising number of rape victims filing complaint with the police, many girls and women still hide the crime due to the social stigma attached to it and the administrative hurdles they have to face while filing complaint.&

Sah said changing the mindset of society might take some time, so police needed to be more women-friendly and sensitive while registering rape case.

&A rape case must be filed in the presence of a health worker, lawyer and police officials to effectively bring the perpetrator behind bars and to save the victimrights to privacy,& Sah added, Dhana Kumari Sunar, a woman activist and former member of the National Women Commission, said more women filing rape cases was a progressive sign and women in Nepali society were breaking free from the clutches of patriarchy.

&Rape itself is a very bad thing, but it is a good thing that many women have started reporting cases to the authorities,& said Sunar, adding that majority of rape perpetrators were either seniors from within the family or from among relatives of the victim.

&Rape victims are reluctant to report the incident as they fear social stigma. &We need an effective system to encourage such victims to speak up against the perpetrators,& said Sah.

Police, however, failed to nab 55 rape-accused persons in fiscal 2018-19 and 144 rape accused in fiscal 2017-18.

According to a report issued by WomenRehabilitation Centre, nearly 70 per cent victims of rape and rape attempts are minors between the age of five and 16.

Most of the incidents of rape and rape attempts were perpetrated by family members, close relatives and acquaintances, the report states.

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