PERMANENT MISSION OF THE KINGDOM OF NEPAL TO THE UNITED NATIONS
Statement by
Honourable
Mrs. Kamala Pant
Minister of State for Women, Children and Social Welfare
at the Twenty-Third Special Session
of the United Nations General Assembly
"Women 2000: Gender equality, development and peace for the 21s' Century"
06 June 2000
New York
Mr. President,
I join the previous speakers in congratulating you, Mr. President, for assuming the presidency of this important session. I am confident that your able leadership will guide the session to its fruitful conclusion, for which my delegation extends its full cooperation.
Mr. President, as one of the participating countries in the World Conference on Women in Beijing, Nepal, along with the rest of the world community, had expressed full commitment to the Beijing Platform for Action adopted by the Conference. Immediately after the Beijing Conference, a separate Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare was established in Nepal which then formulated a National Plan of Action on the 12 critical areas of concern. The current Ninth Five Year Plan of Nepal takes full cognizance of the National Plan of Action. The main policies of the Plan for women are: gender mainstreaming in all developmental activities, reduction of gender disparities and empowerment of women. These have since been the guiding policies for all our programmes including the recently launched nationwide programme for political, social and economic empowerment of the grassroots level women which will cover all villages of Nepal within five years.
Mr. President, a recent national review, a full report of which is being made available, shows that there have been some improvements towards gender equality and women empowerment in Nepal but the progress has been slow and much still remains to be achieved. There have been various other initiatives after Beijing but their effective implementation has been mainly constrained by frequent changes of governments, especially between 1995 and 1999, traditional patriarchal society of Nepal, and resource constraints.
Despite some recent achievements in increasing women's access to education and health services, the overall educational and health status of Nepalese women remain unsatisfactory. Some laws which are discriminatory to women still exist although a civil code amendment bill has already been submitted to the parliament. Human rights of women and violence against women, especially trafficking, dowry related and domestic, are significant problems. Women's participation in the economy is still mostly in traditional and less productive sectors and their true contributions to the national economy are yet to be fully accounted for.
The Local Self-Governance Act 1999 ensures 20 percent women representation among the elected members at the local elected bodies. This provision has made it possible for about 40,000 women to participate in these bodies. Representation of women in the parliament has also increased over the years. However, their representation in key decision making political positions and in the civil service is still very low.
Nepal will be investing increasingly more on the social sector to improve the living conditions of people in general and women in particular. In 1995, about 30 percent of the total national budget was allocated to the social sector which has increased to over 35 percent in the budget this year.
The recent establishment of the Human Rights Commission will play an important role in protecting and improving the human rights situation of women. Similarly, the soon-to-be-established National Commission on Women, is expected to improve effectiveness of various efforts being undertaken for increasing gender equality and women empowerment.
Mr. President, I am pleased to say that Nepal has a vibrant NGO movement which has been an ally of the Government in Nepal's efforts towards gender equality and women empowerment. NGOs have been particularly effective in raising awareness on women's issues, changing attitudes, advocacy and as lobbyist and pressure groups both in Nepal and abroad. This partnership will be further strengthened and a broader partnership with the private and other sectors will be sought in our efforts towards achieving our goals for. women.
Mr. President, we will further intensify our efforts as we are fully aware that without equal and meaningful partnership of women, our problem of endemic poverty and underdevelopment will not diminish. We will do our best. Understandably, however, our efforts alone will not be enough.
We are aware that the greatest responsibility rests with the individual nations. Their actions will go a long way in improving the status of women in their own countries. This, however, does not lessen the responsibility of the world community, especially the developed countries, many of whose resource commitments expressed in various world conferences remain unfulfilled. Inspite of the fact that the developed economies are doing well, it is a sad irony that, except for a few exemplary countries, the official development assistance from the developed countries is decreasing both in real terms and as a proportion of their Gross Domestic Product.
To conclude, Mr. President, Nepal once again renews her commitment to gender equality and women empowerment. This is not because others say so but because this is imperative for us. Nepal also urges the world community, especially the developed world, to be much more forthcoming in the fulfillment of their commitment to the cause of women of the world.
Mr. President, it will be most unfortunate if our next review still finds the situation of women not significantly improved due to unfulfilled commitments. This review session, therefore, is the right time for all partners to reflect on their own commitments and rededicate themselves, in the spirit of true partnership, for gender equality, development and peace for the Twenty-First Century.
I thank you for your attention.