Strengthening Constitutionalism in Nepal
The assurance of human rights is a fundamental commitment of democratic constitutions. Following the transition from absolute monarchy to multi-party democracy and the descent into a decade-long civil conflict, Nepal’s NHRC was established in 2000. It was elevated to constitutional status in the 2007 Interim Constitution, and this was continued in the 2015 Constitution. The transition to a federal republic in 2015 has required an adjustment in the NHRC’s strategy and operational engagement. This note was commissioned to critically reflect on this challenge, in particular, exploring how the NHRC ought to engage with and support the newly formed federalised local units of government to assure the realisation of human rights in the new political context.
Highlighting the salience of human rights in the context of the newly federated Nepali state, this note emphasises that human rights and federalism ought to work in tandem to support the consolidation of a more equal and inclusive state. Importantly, as the unit of government at the coalface of state-citizen relations in Nepal’s federation, local governments have a unique opportunity to strengthen the rights of citizens, serving as institutions to connect human rights discourse and standards to the local social-cultural milieu and the processes of decision-making. Ensuring the synergy of human rights and federalism requires essential links between the NHRC and the different units of the federation to be built and maintained. However, while the NHRC has begun to restructure itself to calibrate to the new federal context, as this note highlights, it has not yet adapted to engage differently and independently with the three tiers of the Nepali state. In this context, it is critical for the NHRC to prioritise reforms that enable it to accompany sub-national governments as autonomous actors, reaching down to be an effective guarantor at the provincial and local levels of the Nepali state.
This note on the National Human Rights Commission (the ‘NHRC’) has been produced by Niti Foundation — a Nepali not-for-profit public interest organisation that accompanies locally-led policy reform, in partnership with the National Endowment for Democracy.
You can read the Nepali version of this document here.
