Nepal: women’s representation and violence against women in the April 2008 elections

A participant lists down research findings while others listen to the presentation, 6-7 May 2008, Kathmandu, Nepal
Photo ©: Ajit Baral/IDEA

On 6-7 May 2008, International IDEA organized a two-day programme on women’s representation and violence against women in the recent Constituent Assembly (CA) elections held in Nepal. The seminar was organized in cooperation with South Asia Partnership International (SAPI) with whom International IDEA had previously carried out research on this subject.

Rohit Kumar Nepali, Director of SAPI, invited the researchers to present the findings of the research. Shobha Ghimire, a researcher based in Jhapa district, said that in her district women candidates were chosen on the basis of their (or their families') contribution to parties. But she stressed that parties gave candidacy to women only to fulfil the mandatory quota and not because they thought that women were capable and competent. Another researcher from Parsa district, Bimalesh Thakur, said that parties didn’t give women candidates the same kind of support that they gave to their male candidates. Thakur described the case of a candidate from the Nepal Workers and Peasants’ party who claimed to have got no support from her party.

All the researchers said that they found no clear evidence of violence against women candidates. However, all of them were of the opinion that many women candidates were slandered and verbally abused and not given adequate recognition.

On the second day, the research findings were shared with women CA members and lawyers, who seemed to agree with the findings. For example, Suprabha Ghimire of the Nepali Congress, who won a seat in Constituency 4 of Kathmandu, said that she didn’t have to suffer violence of any kind. But she said that she didn’t get support from the party and that she felt that she was competing as an individual candidate.

The following conclusions were drawn from the two-day programme:

• There should be a productive quota system.
• The mixed electoral system is better.
• Parties need to be restructured to make them more progressive and democratic.
• There was no systematic violence against women in politics.
• There is solidarity amongst women. 
• International instruments should incorporate VAWIP (Violence Against Women Indicators Project ) issues.
• Mechanisms should be in place to address VAWIP issues.
• Media should be free and unbiased.
• The constitution should mention “We Nepali Women and Men” instead of “We Nepali”.