The Inter Parliamentary Union (IPU), the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the World Future Council (WFC) presented the award to Nepal National Assembly Chairperson Ganesh Prasad Timilsina at the 141^st IPU Assembly held between October 13-17, 2019.

Nepal National Assembly Chairperson Ganesh Prasad Timilsina handed over the award to Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli at his official residence in Baluwatar on October 23, 2019 amidst a special ceremony.

The IPU, UNDP and WFC awarded eight inspiring and impactful laws and policies including Nepal’s, out of the 67 shortlisted policies from 36 countries.

“Every year, the most impactful policies tackling humankind’s most pressing challenges are celebrated through the Future Policy Award, the only global award that recognizes policies for the benefit of present and future generations,” read a statement issued by UNDP while announcing the award earlier this month.

“It contains, among other important principles, provisions for youth rights relating to participation and empowerment in Nepal as well as protection from discrimination,” the statement reads further.

The award recognizes and rewards Nepal and its constitution’s efforts to manage conflict peacefully and ensure youth participation and rights.

Speaking about the achievement PM Oli said that Nepal’s constitution has earned the award due to best provisions that acknowledge social values, inclusive representation in policy making and ends discrimination.

Additionally, he also highlighted Nepal’s role in engaging Nepali youth and ensuring a clean environment in the constitution. He further said that Nepal’s constitution adopted democracy, equality, social justice and a discrimination-free society and that has been recognized internationally.

“We will make Nepal as the fastest growing economy in the world within a few years. I urge all to join the national goal of prosperity that can be achieved under this constitution,” PM Oli pledged.

Earlier this week, the UNFPA praised and applauded Nepal’s efforts towards safe motherhood, family planning and women empowerment others.

These and many other achievements are pointing at the progress being made by the Nepal Government for Nepal’s sustainability and development.

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While addressing a discussion in Bhutwal, the Minister said that 2075 BS has not only seen an advancement in numbers, but also enactment of some milestone laws.

Providing insight into the number of laws and their various kinds, the Minister stated that 26 new laws proposed by the constitution, have been enacted.

This includes bills related to:

• Province Public Service Commission
• Police Administration
• Peace and Security
• Land Use and Industry
• Other issues of public concern

Furthermore, 47 bills were presented in the house of representatives.

There is also a constitutional mandate that requires the replacement of old laws with new ones before March 05, 2019. Minister Dhakal added that related works have already begun.

The Law Minister also said that the federal government was laying central focus on the formulation of new acts and laws, since it wanted to ensure effective implementation of federalism.

National Assembly Vice Chair Shashikala Dahal, who was also present at the event stressed on the importance for formulating laws in alignment with the constitution.

NA member Khimlal Bhattarai said that all the three levels of government should have a clear idea about their rights in the new federal setup. He added that Province 5 should become a role model for effective implementation of the federal setup.

Meanwhile, Province 5 State Assembly Speaker Purna Bahadur Gharti opined that only protecting and promoting people’s rights would strengthen the republic.

On the occasion, former Constituent Assembly member and senior advocate Khimlal Devkota presented a work paper on issues including implementation of federalism, employee administrations – challenges and opportunities, formulation of laws, fiscal management and hierarchical inter-relations.

Related News:

• Nepal Laws and Rights – A Glance from Past to Present
• Nepal Government Launches Long-Awaited PM Employment Program!
• Nepal Passes All Fundamental Rights Laws, Meets Deadlines

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As the reports say, the PMO Secretary is going to head the National Committee on anti-money laundering and terrorism financing if a proposed provision in some Nepal Acts Amendment Bill 2018 is approved by the parliament.

If the bill is endorsed as planned, the Finance Secretary (the current head of the committee) will just be the member, while the decision-making lies with the PMO Secretary.

Surprisingly, the proposed bill was registered in the Parliament without the consent of the Finance Secretary.

MoF Not Happy About Decision

Doing so goes against the general practice of taking opinion of the concerned parties’ while formulating a law, say the Ministry of Finance (MoF) officials.

MoF Officials opine that the law will be effective under MoF and the PMO Secretary-led committee is less effective compared to the Finance Secretary.

“There was a kind of accepted notion that having the Finance Minister as the head of the committee shall make its functions more effective,” an MoF official reportedly said.

“PMO Secretary makes the committee weaker than the Finance Secretary,” says another MoF official.

The Finance Ministry also complains about challenges they have been facing in issuing directives to high-level officials under different regulators such as Nepal Rastra Bank.

Whereas, PMO states that their proposed bill has been prepared considering the Department of Anti Money Laundering (DMLI) presence under PMO.

The Prime Minister Oli had brought DMLI from MoF to PMO to have more authority on issues related to money laundering.

However, officials argue that there was not any remarkable change since the shift took place.

Even the agencies feel that majority of the financial issues investigated need intervention of MoF officials in the investigation.

MoF was preparing a new draft for amending the Money Laundering Prevention Act 2008 with the addition of new provisions such as designating the Finance Minister to head the committee to make it more powerful.

But with the latest announcement, MoF has to hand-over its draft to PMO without any further discussion!

The Background

All this started with Lawmaker Nawaraj Silwal, former head of the Central Investigation Bureau, registering an amendment motion in the Parliament pitching for political leadership to head the high-level committee instead of civil servants.

On the other side, the Finance Minister also met with officials of government units associated with money laundering investigations, following the Nepal Leaks that disclosed 55 Nepalis’ illegal transactions in Swiss accounts.

What could be the government’s next move in the decision?

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In a recent update, Nepal emerged as the first South Asian country to implement the law that criminalizes corporal punishment of children.

The new Children’s Act 2018 introduced by Nepal Government also placed the Himalayan nation at the 54^th position globally for proposing this law.

Defining children as the ones under 18 years of age, the new law has placed 18 acts as violence and 11 acts as sexual offences against children.

Under the new law, the Government of Nepal calls for criminalization of following acts if involving children:

• Threat
• Discrimination
• Abandonment
• Showing movies or audio-visual materials meant for adults
• Sending children to Dance Bars, Casinos and places offering adult entertainment
• Sending children (of age below 6 years) outside without adults accompanying them
• Gambling
• Drinking and Smoking
• Tormenting through electronic or other forms of communication
• Illegal detention
• Handcuffing
• Involvement in political and vehicle strikes and sit-ins, and in any form of conflict
• Forcing of children to beg or wear clothes meant for monks and similar category people
• Engaging them in circus or magical programs
• Removing of children’s organs and medicinal experimentation
• Complaints against guardians, teachers, parents found accused of physical or sexual violence against children
• Revealing a child victim’s identity in sub judice

Anybody found guilty of involving in aforementioned crimes against children will be subjected to a fine not exceeding Rs 50,000 and imprisonment for a period of a year or below.

Revealing a child victim’s identity in sub judice also subjects the criminals to a similar fine and imprisonment period.

Commenting on the law, the Chairperson of Child Workers in Nepal Concern Centre Madhav Pradhan urged the government to clearly state the punishment for violation of the provision that prohibits employment of children below the age of 14 years in domestic services.

Meanwhile, Krishna Subedi, Chairperson of Child Nepal said the utilization of children workforce (below the age of 18) in hazardous work should be completely prohibited.

Stating that the new Act retained the old Muluki Ain’s provision of protecting children below 10 years immunity from criminal prosecution, Subedi said, “All children below the age of 12 and not 10 should have such immunity.”

He also called on the government for not taking responsibility of compensation for the child victim.

“The new law says that perpetrators will compensate. But what happens if the perpetrators flee or if they are not arrested for 20 years, should the children not get compensation?” he wondered.

Hope the new law and its proper implementation will free the Nepali society from ill-practices involving children.

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As the reports say, the government has recently drafted a new law for immediate implementation of mega infrastructure projects at an investment of more than Rs 25 billion.

The PMO has already forwarded the bill to relevant ministries and is planning to table the same in the Parliament in the third week of November 2018.

The draft law envisions ‘corporate model’ in project implementation and open competition in hiring core personnel required for the project.

“This provision ensures that no project faces difficulties due to staff transfers. This is to facilitate easy recruitment of officials,” says OPMCM Secretary Kedar Bahadur Adhikari.

The new law is going to bring a transformation in the project implementation procedures. It allows project initiation only after financial assurance and successful completion of pre-feasibility study.

“This is to ensure that only the projects whose necessary preparations have been completed will go for implementation, unlike the present practice where the majority of the projects are first announced by the annual budget and preparations follow,” adds Adhikari.

Projects under the new law cannot follow the Public Procurement Act (except for a few major provisions in the PPA) and bidding process, depending on implementation modality.

Whereas, technologically-complex and high-value projects, with no financial support either from government or private sector, can go for direct negotiation with the concerned parties after government’s approval.

“The major thrust of this law is that no project should face difficulties due to issues related to inter-agency coordination,” says Adhikari.

The new law doesn’t apply for existing projects other than the national priority projects that are yet to take off.

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In an official release, IFJ and its affiliates Federation of Nepali Journalists (FNJ) and the Nepal Press Union (NPU) raised serious concerns stating that the new Act has some restrictive provisions and urged for immediate amendments to the same.

“Nepal’s new Criminal Codes Act 2018 curtails freedom of expression and the press. Some provisions of the Act, especially Sections 293 to 308 relating to privacy and defamation, are restrictive to the press freedom and criminalize expression,” reads an IFJ release.

IFJ pointed at few Sections of Nepal’s Criminal Code 2018 in its release, which include:

• Section 293, which doesn’t allow listening or recording conversations without consent
• Section 294, which prohibits publicizing private information without consent
• Section 295, which disallows capturing photos without consent
• Section 296, which disagrees with selling or publishing photos for commercial purpose without permission of the subject covered in the photographs
• Section 298, which is against receiving/sending or publishing unauthorized information on an electronic medium
• Section 305, which condemns slander
• Section 306, which is against acts including those in satirical ways.

The new Code considers violation of rules under aforementioned sections as punishable offense subjecting the convict to 1-3 years imprisonment and Rs 10,000-30,000 (USD 100-300) penalty.

In this regard, IFJ supports the Nepali journalists’ unions such as Federation of Nepali Journalists (FNJ) and Nepal Press Union (NPU) who have been raising similar concerns since the day the Act was brought to implementation on August 17, 2018.

IFJ expresses serious concerns over the restrictive provisions of the Criminal Codes Act of Nepal; and demands immediate amendments to ensure they adhere to the international standards and principles of freedom of expression and press freedom. At the time when Nepali media and journalists are facing security threats, such provisions will be misused to harass journalists and media; and obstruct independent as well as investigative journalism  –  IFJ Official Release

The new code put forth by the Oli-led Nepali Government came as a replacement to the country’s 15 existing laws and 55-year-old civil & criminal laws.

What FNJ Says?
More than 80 journalists faced criminal cases and harassment due to one provision in the Electronic Transaction Act for their news. The new Act has dozens of such provisions that criminalizes written or spoken expression; and journalists face imprisonment up to three years for merely writing news. This is against the international standards and principles of press freedom; as well as the Constitution of Nepal.  – Govinda Acharya, President, FNJ

The NPU condemns the Act with provisions that restrict journalists to report, write and take photograph. Such restrictions are against the democratic norms and values; and indicate towards authoritarianism. The NPU demands immediate amendment in the unacceptable provisions of the law. – Badri Sigdel, President, NPU

Taking their move ahead, FNJ has also announced a nation-wide agitation from August 28 to September 7, 2018.

Also Read:

• New Law to Check Transparency in NGO Activities
• Nepal Criminal Code Draws Criticism, ‘Press Freedom’ Plays Vital
• Nepal Criminal Code Sought for Fight Against Rape Victims
• Nepal Civil Code and Criminal Code Acts to Ensure Justice

The post Nepal Criminal Code 2018: IFJ Serious, Calls ‘Criminalizing Press Freedom’ appeared first on Nepali Sansar.

A future action plan revealed by the MoWCSW states that it will also enforce an Anti-corporal Punishment policy.

The said policy will implement children safety that is threatened by bullying and its adverse effects.

Studies and Surveys conducted on Bullying:
The Knowledge, Attitude and Practices Survey 2015 conducted by the Ministry, reveals the following findings:

• About 88.9 percent district level education representatives said that a considerable number of children from their districts were bullied at school on a regular basis
• 1 percent of the Nepal household girls and boys questionnaires respondents, who have been at school for some point of time, said that they experienced physical or psychological peer violence

According to a 2016 UNICEF study, psychological bullying and hazing by adults or other children through Information and Communication technologies (ICTs) or Cyber-bullying was a serious form of mental violence against South Asian children.

The study also warned that easy access to the Internet and growing popularity of camera-equipped smartphones had led to the rise of cyber bullying.

Additional Provisions of the MoWCSW Anti-Bullying Policy:
The Ministry also says that it will establish and run an integrated rehabilitation center and well-furnished old age homes to care for women and children who have been victims of bullying and senior citizens.

“The ministry will also set up a help desk at the central level to receive and redress the grievances of women, children, persons with disabilities and senior citizens. Rapid response teams comprising representatives from civil society, teachers and journalists will be formed for immediate rescue and protection of victim women and children,” informs the MoWCSW.

Interestingly, the Ministry says it will work closely with transport operators to establish women safety on public transport.

Early last year, cops in plain clothes nabbed over 80 persons for sexually harassing female passengers availing public transport.

Existing Nepal Laws define sexual assault as any form of sexual contact or actions like tapping, touching and showing sexually explicit pictures/videos to persons without their consent.

The post MoWCSW to Deploy Anti-Bullying Policy in Nepal appeared first on Nepali Sansar.

The new Nepali law, likely to be in force from August 17, 2018, considers it as a crime causing damage to currency notes and coins by any means of writing, drawing, burning, tearing, and drawing lines, among other activities.

As the reports say, Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has already directed the country’s banks and financial institutions to put the new law into practice across the country.

In a public notice, NRB also informed the public about the new legal provision.

Going forward, any citizen violating the law will be subjected to three months imprisonment and a fine of NPR 5000 under the Nepal Criminal Procedure Code Act 2017.

According to Laxmi Prapanna Niraula, Chief of the Currency Management Department at NRB, the new law helps in increasing the lifetime of currency notes and adds to NRB efforts in revenue savings.

The new law is the first such regulation from Nepal Government towards securing currency notes after the existing law in place, to penalize those making and circulating counterfeit currencies.

As NRB reports, Nepal had NPR 458 billion (USD 4.15 billion) worth currency notes currently circulating in the market with 30 percent of them being dirty because of lines or words written on them.

To address the concern, NRB has also stopped issuing such dirty notes to increase the stock of clean notes.

“Using those notes in the market however will not be illegal for now,” says Niraula.

Hope, the new in place will increase NRB’s efforts to generate more clean currency notes while also addressing the menace of counterfeit currency distribution in the market.

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Making the norms strict, Nepali Cabinet said the government will move ahead with the projects only after the Indian Government signs all the related financing deals with the Nepali Finance Ministry.

The Cabinet sought paper trail and deep scrutiny of every fund that India plans to make for small projects in Nepal.

The latest move by Nepali Cabinet is coming as a result of ambiguity over flow and distribution of Indian grants controlled by the Indian Embassy in Kathmandu.

In such case, the latest Cabinet decision is being looked at as an obstacle for the Indian Embassy in Kathmandu in executing its Nepali projects at its own will.

India has been offering grants worth Rs 50 million per SDP for infrastructure development including hospitals and educational institutions across local bodies of Nepal.

However, Nepali political analysts feel that the move is driving Indian influence in Nepal.

Shift in Procedures One Way

As part of its latest decision, Nepali Cabinet urged India to route its funds only through the central government account and not in any other way for smooth flow of the projects.

 “Only after the Indian grant comes into the central government’s account, would that amount be allocated to specific projects in various districts,” Minister for Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Sher Bahadur Tamang said in a statement.

Going forward, as per the new decision, Nepali Finance Ministry will first finalize any project based on inputs by the provincial and local governments and sends the proposals to India.

Upon acceptance, India will have to sign financing agreements with the Nepali Finance Ministry to start funding the selected projects.

“This would give Nepal government greater control over where and how the funds are spent, keep track of the project and maintain financial transparency,” says a senior Nepali Finance Ministry official.

Local bodies will be responsible for the successful implementation of projects, adds the official.

According to Tamang, Indian grants will fall under the FY 2019-20 budget as Nepal Government has already announced the budget for FY 2018-19.

Earlier, Deuba-led Nepal Government had agreed to the extension of India’s SDP proposal with a condition that the process will go under the decision making of Nepal Government.

Upon the implementation of the Cabinet decision, it will be the first time that the Indian grants to SDP in Nepal will be operating under Nepal Government since the launch of SDP in 2003.

Applause, the Other Way

In another update enhancing Indo-Nepal ties, Nepal Government appreciated Indian Government’s support in the development of India-Nepal cross border rail links.

As part of the sixth Project Steering Committee (PSC) meeting on India-Nepal Cross Border Rail Link Projects held in Kathmandu on July 09, 2018, both sides also discussed to complete Jayanagar-to-Janakpur-Kurtha and Jogbani-to-Biratnagar customs yard railway lines by October 2018.

The two sides also agreed to move ahead with the other stretches such as Kurtha-Bijalpura-Bardibas and Biratnagar customs yard on priority. 

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“We urge everyone to respect the freedoms of peaceful expression and assembly, and individual voters’ rights as laid out in Nepal’s laws and constitution,” read a statement by the US Embassy in Kathmandu.

In its release, the US Diplomatic Mission to Nepal raised concerns and condemned the recent attacks on political candidates contesting in the upcoming elections.

The Embassy informed that US is committed to working with all stakeholders to ensure an inclusive, peaceful and credible election process.

PM Deuba Calls for Tight Security

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister of Nepal Sher Bahadur Deuba directed the security officials to ensure full security to the public in the light of the upcoming general elections.

“The constitution has been promulgated after a long struggle. Election is must for constitution implementation. People should get peaceful environment to cast their votes. Do not leave any stone unturned in security system to save the people’s voting rights,” said Deuba in his address at a security seminar for the upcoming elections in Kathmandu today.

Meanwhile, Home Secretary Mohan Krishna Sapkota said, “Security challenges in elections have already been identified. Problems will be resolved after moving ahead with the effective security plans.”

On the occasion, security chiefs of all districts briefed about their strategies and also highlighted security conditions, challenges and measures to be implemented to ensure safe electoral process.

Special Observation Missions on the Other Side

Meanwhile, the European Union and the renowned NGO Carter Center have already launched their international Election Observation Missions (EBO) for the Nepal’s upcoming provincial and parliamentary elections.

“Every election has their own challenges and the authorities that are preparing the elections have been facing lots of challenges and Nepal is not exempted from that. Especially considering the fact that the local elections were held recently in September, I don’t see any problem in the government’s efforts,” says Zeljana Zovko, Chief Observer of the EU Election Observation Mission.

The EU mission is making an estimated spending of EUR 3.5 million for the process and has deployed around 38 Long Term Observers (LTOs) across different parts of Nepal to monitor the ongoing preparations and related logistic issues.

Whereas, Carter Center has deployed 14 LTOs and a core team of five experts led by Field Office Director Carlos Valenzuela. Altogether, Carter Center’s team has observers representing 13 countries.

“The Carter Center has a long history in Nepal and we are honored to be present for the first national-level elections since the adoption of the constitution. We trust the elections will be peaceful and will help consolidate Nepal’s democracy,” says Mary Ann Peters, CEO of Carter Center and the Ambassador (ret.).

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