Info on Nepal

Nepal is a land-locked country located in the Himalayan mountain range bordering India and China. Eight of the world's ten highest mountains, including Mount Everest, are in Nepal. The country has a diverse landscape, ranging from high mountains over a hilly belt in the north to humid plains in the south.  Nepal’s mountain regions are home to the sources of three major rivers: the Kosi, the Narayani, and the Karnali. The country’s southern region, which borders India and is known as the Terai, is the most fertile area for agriculture.  Nepal has a surface area of 147,181 km2 and has a population of around 28.9 million.  It is one of the poorest countries in the world and is highly dependent on foreign development assistance.

Nepal is made up of a mosaic of ethnicities and languages; it is home to more than 100 ethnic groups (of which approximately 60 are officially recognised) and around 125 languages.  Although they comprise more than 30 per cent of the population, Nepal’s indigenous and ethnic groups are highly underrepresented in government administration and the legislature, which is dominated by the Hindu hill castes. Despite the anti-discrimination provisions set out in the 1990 Constitution, caste and gender discrimination remains ingrained in much of the Nepalese society.  Nepal also plays host to refugee populations, the biggest being a group of approximately 100,000 ethnic Nepalese who fled Bhutan in the early 1990’s.

Low quality and inconsistent social service delivery, a lack of basic water and sanitation facilities and poor school enrolment rates have impeded rural and indigenous peoples from breaking the poverty cycle, despite efforts by the government and international donors to address these issues.

History

Until the late 18th century, Nepal was divided into several small kingdoms.  In 1769, King Prithvi Narayan Shah unified the country into one nation and for the next centuries Nepal was governed by Kings and Ranas under a feudalistic state structure.  All key government positions were also held by the Ranas.  The prime minister had complete authority over all internal administration, civil, military, judicial and foreign policy.  In 1950, a mass political uprising led by the Nepali Congress Party (NC) overthrew the Rana rule with political backing from Indian political parties and established the first democracy with a quasi-constitutional rule.  Between 1950 and 1959, King Tribhuvan, a direct descendant of the Shah king Prithvi Narayan, ruled the country with leaders of the political parties.  A new constitution was formed to establish a representative form of government.  However,  after Tribhuwan's death in 1959, his son, King Mahendra, decided to stage a royal coup and established himself as direct ruler in 1961.  A partyless Panchayat system was introduced as a new form of political administration and all political parties were declared illegal.  This also established a new order in the country in which no individual was allowed to criticize the royal government or question partyless ‘democracy’.  The King was the supreme commander of the army and had absolute political and legal authority. Political parties and civil society groups continued to operate underground and their leaders were regularly detained.

The first experiences with democracy

In 1990, following 31 years of absolute monarchy, democratic political parties united under a common banner to launch strikes and demonstrations in the major cities of Nepal.  This "movement to restore democracy" initially led to the killing of more than 50 people by the police and hundreds of demonstrators were arrested.  The mass uprising became known as Jan Andolan.  King Birendra (brother of Mahendra) reached an understanding with the political alliance led by NC and an alliance of leftist parties to dismiss the Panchayat government, lift the ban on political parties and to write up a new constitution for Nepal.  Unfortunately, Nepal’s first experience with democracy in the 1990s was characterised by constant political squabbling and corruption leading to frequent changes in government, a poor governance record and a lack of effective implementation of development plans, further impoverishing the country.

The transition to democracy produced an array of leftist political parties.  One of these parties, the CPN-UML emerged from the 1994 election as the largest political party and made Nepal the world's first communist monarchy.  One communist party, the CPN-Maoist, was excluded from participation in the government and withdrew from the political process vowing to wage ‘a People's War’ based on demands for a communist republic, a constituent assembly and the end to a constitutional monarchy.

The emergence of the Maoist rebellion was rooted in Nepal’s traditional feudal power structure, the unequal access to resources and social services, social exclusion of ethnic groups, endemic corruption throughout the political classes and the inability of successive governments to address poverty, particularly in remote areas outside the capital, Kathmandu.

Due to the conflict, poverty levels declined by 11% between 1996 and 2004 and the decline hit certain groups harder than others.  For some excluded ethnic groups, this rate was almost double the national average.  The poorest and hardest hit conflict regions have a poverty prevalence that is almost 20% higher than that of the region surrounding the capital.

Intensification of the conflict

A new turn of political events took place after the tragic death of King Birendra, who was killed together with his relatives in what is comonly known as the ‘royal massacre’ in 2001.  His younger brother Gyanendra replaced him as the new king.  In 2002, King Gyanendra sacked Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba for his failure to create a safe environment for elections and appointed a Council of Ministers under his direct authority.  The King also declared a state of emergency, suspending fundamental rights and mobilised the army to suppress a Maoist uprising that had gained considerable strength.  Extrajudicial powers were given to the security forces, leading to series of human rights violations, arbitrary arrests and detention.  Civilians caught in the conflict became targets for both the state and the Maoist forces.

On 1st February 2005, the King overthrew the government and initiated a more direct rule.  The civilian security situation continued to deteriorate as the Maoist movement gained further strength in rural districts.  Political and civil society leaders were arrested and deprived of legal assistance.  Curfews were imposed and the main communication lines were interrupted.  Violence intensified in the hands of both Maoists and government military forces.  The international community expressed increasing concern over violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights and in 2005 UN OHCHR established a large field presence in Nepal to monitor the human rights situation.  At this point in time humanitarian agencies estimated that over 200,000 Nepalese were displaced from their homes and Nepal had a record number of disappearances.

In November 2005, a Seven Party Alliance¹ (SPA) was negotiated between the mainstream political parties and the Maoist leadership.  Over the following months, pressure on the King’s rule mounted and the SPA prepared  for a mass uprising.  In April 2006, 19 days of demonstrations across the country - Jan Andolan II – launched by the SPA forced the King to hand back power to the political parties and reinstate the dissolved House of Representatives (HoR) on 24 April 2006.  A democratic government was formed and the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement between the Seven Party Alliance and the CPN-Maoists in November 2006 ended a decade of armed conflict in Nepal.  Following further negotiations, the CPN-Maoists joined the interim government in January 2007.

The peace process launched by the SPA and the CPN-Maoists has been subjected to high expectations and numerous disagreements over key political issues such as security sector reform, management of arms, the future of the monarchy and aspirations to declare Nepal a republic.  Since April 2006, fears of the country returning to armed conflict have regularly emerged.  This was particularly the case when the CPN-Maoists decided to quit the interim government in September 2007, blaming the failure of the SPA-leadership to agree to their demands for the immediate abolition of the monarchy and the introduction of a more proportional election system. The election for a Constituent Assembly has been a key feature of the peace agreement and the Nepalese public have long awaited the date for the first democratic election to take place in Nepal since 1999.  Due to the political differences, the Constituent Assembly elections scheduled first for June 2007, then November 2007, were postponed.  However, the Interim Government and the Maoists agreed on a revised election system, which convinced the Maoists to rejoin the government in December 2007 and 10 April 2008 was announced as a new election date.

During the early phase of the peace agreements, the SPA and the CPN-Maoists made an official request to the UN Secretary General for assistance to support the technical aspects of the peace process.

Responding to the request from the parties to the peace agreement, the UN established a special political mission in Nepal (UNMIN) on 23 January 2007².  In addition to technical assistance to prepare for elections for a Constituent Assembly, a key Maoist demand, UNMIN is tasked to monitor arms management and armed personnel of the Nepal Army and former Maoist combatants as well as the ceasefire agreement.  UNMIN’s current mandate will expire in July 2008.

While the CA election is a crucial step towards a lasting peace in Nepal, finding a suitable path that guarantees an inclusive peace process and addresses the underlying causes of conflict will remain one of the key challenges.  There is broad agreement that a key challenge for any future government will be to address the lack of law and order and advocate a more peaceful civic culture that can reach across dividing lines and promote national co-existence and lasting peace.