Speaking from the Ground: Transitional Gender Justice in Nepal

Abstract

A decade of civil war commenced in Nepal in 1996 when the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) initiated military action against the government. A Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) was reached in 2006, which saw the end of the People’s War. Establishing a high-level Truth and Reconciliation Commission was one of the main agendas of the CPA and a requirement of the Interim Constitution (2007), nonetheless it was over a decade before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was established in 2015, alongside the Commission of Investigation on Enforced Disappeared Persons (CIEDP). This chapter critically examines gender justice in post People’s War Nepal, and argues that despite a very successful women’s movement, women still have not been able to receive justice. Although Nepal has shown some sensitivity towards gender by engaging with some of the gendered human rights violations, gender has largely been instrumentalised within the transitional justice process to achieve other political goals. Despite constant pressure from women’s rights organisations, gender sadly remains a side issue in Nepal’s transitional justice process.