KATHMANDU: Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli on Saturday reiterated that the new Constitution promulgated in September last year was progressive.

"The Constitution has an elaborate list of human rights and fundamental rights and right of freedoms to all citizens without any discrimination," the Prime Minister said, "Some of the rights contained in our Constitution are not found even in the constitutions of many developed countries. Our constitution is thus uniquely progressive and forward-looking."

He was addressing the 13th SAARCLAW Conference and the 10 Chief Justices' Conference in the Kathmandu today, organised by the SAARCLAW, an association of the legal communities of the SAARC countries comprising judges, lawyers, academicians, law teachers, public officers and a host of other law-related persons.

"Having indeed decade long painful transition with the promulgation of a new Constitution just five months back, Nepal has the freshest experience of what it means to institutionalise inclusive democracy and social justice through Constitution," he argued, "Written by an elected Constituent Assembly and endorsed by an overwhelming majority, the new Constitution embodies hopes and aspirations of all segments of the Nepalese society -- diverse yet harmonious."

Meanwhile, Oli added that the Constitution firmly adhered to the basic principles of constitutionalism, independence of judiciary and its supremacy in interpretation of law.

Explaining that social justice was firmly embedded in the Constitution, he said, "It aims to uplift the status of socially and economically backward groups and communities including women, Dalits, Adibasi Janajatis, Madhesis, Tharus and other backward classes and minorities."

"We South Asians are believers in constitutionalism, rule of law and independence of judiciary."

The programme was chaired by SAARCLAW President, Nepal's Chief Justice Kalyan Shrestha. President Bidya Devi Bhandari was also present at the inaugural.