KATHMANDU, MAY 15

Stakeholders have said that the government has not made enough progress on health and reproductive rights issues and therefore, the government cannot successfully defend its positions with regard to six list of questions posed by the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women regarding Nepal's seventh periodic report.

Chair of women, and Social Affairs Committee of the House of Representatives Kiran Kumar Sah said that he would make all efforts to enact new laws or amend the current laws to ensure women's right to education and health, particularly reproductive health rights.

Speaking at a programme organized by the Forum for Women, Law and Development and Reproductive Center for Reproductive Rights here today, Sah said CEDAW committee was compelling signatory countries to ensure equal rights to women, including their health rights. Chair of Education, Health and Information Technology of HoR Ammar Bahadur Thapa said education materials relating to gender equality should be incorporated at school and high schools' curricula. He said he would make efforts to amend The Right to Safe Motherhood and Reproductive Health Act to bridge gaps in the laws.

Participants expressed their views on the six questions posed by CEDAW Committee to the government regarding Nepal's seventh periodic report. Executive Director of FWLD Sabin Shrestha briefed the participants on how CEDAW committee functioned and what the government should do to fulfil its obligation imposed by CEDAW that Nepal ratified 32 years ago. Shrestha said that the government needed to submit its responses to CEDAW Committee's response within 90 days from the date the government receives the list of questions. Shrestha said that the government must show in its periodic report what substantial progress it made to ensure women's equal rights.

Executive Director of FWLD Sabin Shrestha and Senior Legal Adviser for Asia, Center for Reproductive Rights Prabhakar Shrestha said the programme was orgnised to help the government prepare its response within the stipulated time. Under Secretary at the Ministry of Health and Population Roshani Devi Karki and Under Secretary at the Ministry of Women, Children and Senior Citizens Rajan Kumar BC said they were making their efforts to prepare the government's response to six questions posed by the CEDAW Committee.

CEDAW Committee has listed six questions relating to women's health and reproductive rights. The CEDAW Committee has asked the government to provide information on measures taken to decriminalise abortion and legalise it in all cases, and to ensure access to safe abortion and post-abortion services; measures taken to combat and eliminate sex-selective termination of pregnancy for non-medical purposes and measures taken to end discrimination by health-care providers against Dalit women, Indigenous women, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and intersex women, and women who engage in prostitution.

The CEDAW Committee also seeks information from the government on health services available for women and girls with disabilities; coverage and availability of youth-friendly sexual and reproductive health services, programmes to prevent sexually transmitted infections, cervical cancer and human papillomavirus screening programmes, including through women's clinics, and updated data on the prevalence of early pregnancies, disaggregated by age and region. It also wants to know the number of obstetricians and gynecologists for each woman of childbearing age, especially in rural and remote areas.