KATHMANDU: Speaker Onsari Gharti Magar on Tuesday pledged her support to work for uplifting women's status in the patriarchal society.

While speaking at the Summit of Women Speakers of Parliament in Abu Dhabi of United Arab Emirates, the Speaker shared that Nepal had adopted proportional inclusive policies for people from different genders, origins, languages and beliefs among others.

Gharti stressed the Constitution constituted jurisdictions for women issues and human rights, adding that the inclusion was important to build 'fair and equitable society'.

However, Gharti underlined that women still lagged behind men despite the inclusions.

The Summit was organised on December 12-13 under the theme of "United for Shaping the Future."

Speaker Onsari Gharti Magar's address at the Summit of Women Speakers of Parliament

Rt. Honorable Speakers,

Fellow Parliamentarians,

Honorable Members,

Distinguished Participants and Representatives,

Thank you very much for the opportunity to share my thoughts on this topic on United towards a More Inclusive Society. I think, inclusion is an important issue that needs to be adopted wisely for building fair and equitable society. Our society, nation, and world all are divers in terms of gender, origin, languages, beliefs, level of development, and so on. Therefore, inclusion in each and every aspect of public affairs is essential.

It's my pleasure to highlight some information towards inclusion in my country. The Constitution of Nepal has adopted proportional inclusive policies where representation of women and other social segments such as indigenous and backward communities in the state institutions are guaranteed. The preamble, directive principles, fundamental rights and other provisions of the Constitution have clearly spelled out social inclusions. A number of legislations have already been made, amended, and being formulated following the Constitutional provisions of inclusiveness and reservation.

Women representation in the Legislature-Parliament of Nepal at present is nearly 30%. Therefore, the issues of inclusion and cases of violence and discriminations against women are raised strongly in the Parliament.

Furthermore, 33% women seats are guaranteed in the upcoming Federal and Provincial Parliament and 40% seats are ensured to women at the Local Level in the forthcoming elections. Therefore, provisions of inclusion and reservation are being effective means for empowering women and other backward communities in terms of number, raising their voices, and removing discriminations in the society.

Nepal is a signatory state of the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). The Parliament has already passed the laws against domestic violence, laws against sexual harassment, and laws against witch charges targeting elimination all forms of violence and discrimination against women. We have two Parliamentary Committees having jurisdictions of women issues and human rights are overseeing cases of violence against women and other issues of gender discrimination.

We have a National Women Commission, constitutional body and other social segments related Commissions with constitutional mandates for making state structure more inclusive and empower each and every sections of the Nepalese society. All these Constitutional and legal instruments have contributed to increase and improve social inclusion in the Parliament and other State structures.

However, despite these Constitutional and legal provisions of inclusiveness and reservation, overall situation of women is still behind than the male gender. Therefore, we have realised that we need to work further to improve overall situation of women and some other social segments of the country as a whole.

Finally, as a woman Speaker, I also observe that women are still far behind in compare to our male colleagues in many parts of the world and in my own country too. Therefore, I hereby share our commitment that we would be with the spirit of international community to work more for maximising social inclusion and women empowerment in our country and beyond in the days to come.

Thank You.