PARLIAMENT PASSES WOMEN'S RIGHTS BILL GRANTING

UNCLAS KATHMANDU 000555

SIPDIS

LONDON FOR POL/RIEDEL

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV KWMN PHUM SMIG NP
SUBJECT: PARLIAMENT PASSES WOMEN'S RIGHTS BILL GRANTING
PROPERTY RIGHTS, ABORTION ACCESS

REF: 01 KATHMANDU 2041


1. Summary. Nepal's lower house of Parliament passed a
bill March 14 granting women more equitable property
rights, legalizing abortion under certain conditions and
dictating stricter penalties for child marriage, polygamy
and rape. Although the law failed to pass the upper house
in late 2001, its second passage in the lower house was
constitutionally sufficient for enactment. Members of
Nepal's largest minority party felt the law did not go far
enough in granting women equal property rights -
especially because women will still be required to return
inherited property on their wedding day - but put aside
these objections in order to get the bill's other measures
on the books. The minority party plans to introduce
further amendments during the next session of parliament,
but will likely have difficulty getting them past the
Nepali Congress Party majority. End Summary.

Abortion Law Loosened, Inheritance Restrictions Lifted
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2. Nepal's lower house of Parliament on March 14 passed an
amendment to the Civil Code that grants women more
equitable property rights, legalizes abortion under
certain conditions, and provides harsher penalties for
child marriage, polygamy and rape. The bill's most
controversial provision requires daughters to return
inherited parental property if they get married. A
similar bill passed the lower house October 10, 2001
(Reftel),but was defeated in the upper house. Since the
bill has now been passed by the lower house twice, under
Nepal's constitution, upper house endorsement will not now
be required. The bill will next go to the Royal Palace
and will take effect immediately upon receiving the King's
assent.

Minority Party Accepts Less-Than-Perfect Bill
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3. In voting for passage, minority party MPs put aside
reservations that measures in the bill related to female
property rights did not go far enough. Opposition MP
Pradeep Kumar Gyawali (CPN-UML) from Gulmi district said
that his party opposed the provision requiring daughters
to return their inheritance after marriage, but voted for
passage anyway to reap the benefits of the bill's more
positive features. A female member of the upper house
agreed, citing the importance of passing measures related
to abortion and the property rights of divorced women,
which Nepali law had not previously addressed. In
general, the government was not in favor of giving equal
rights to women, she added. The punishment in rape cases
has been doubled, several UML parliamentarians noted with
approval.


4. UML leaders plan to propose an amendment in the next
session of parliament specifying that sons and daughters
share equally in parental property, and permitting
daughters to keep their inheritance after marriage.


5. Ruling Nepali Congress Party (NCP) Chief Whip, Tek
Bahadur Chokhal, viewed the bill as a move in the right
direction. Its "good points" included legalizing abortion
with the consent of the husband, on medical grounds, or in
the case of rape. The new law will allow a woman to keep
a share of the family's property after a divorce, which
was also a positive step. Predictably, Chokhal noted the
provision granting female children the right to inherit
parental property, but less enthusiastically.

Comment
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6. The new law is unlikely to satisfy women's rights
activists who were lobbying for equal treatment under the
law. Moreover, given that the NCP maintains a clear
majority in the more powerful lower house, near-term
prospects for further efforts to rectify the civil code's
gender bias remain dim.

MALINOWSKI