A new Constitution for a new Nepal drafted and adopted by an elected and inclusive Constituent Assembly (CA) is a key element of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) of November 2006 that ended a decade long Maoist insurgency. Elections were held under the Interim Constitution of 2007 and inclusive 601 member CA that also functioned as a Legislature Parliament was elected. It included 197 women and representatives from Nepal’s marginalized groups and diverse population. The CPA and the Interim Constitution mandated the CA to draft and adopt a constitution that eliminated the centralized, unitary
state and introduce instead progressive state restructuring, inclusion and the empowerment of Nepal’s excluded communities. The constitution making process of 2008-12 failed to draft and adopt a new constitution but did produce significant achievements. There is today in Nepal, broad agreement that Nepal should be a federal, secular and inclusive democratic republic. There has been a widespread public debate on complex constitutional issues and the various thematic committees of the former CA produced impressive reports on the main constitutional issues. The issues where consensus proved difficult included the basis for the demarcation of provinces (the balance between identity and viability) in a federal Nepal; the design of the electoral system and whether Nepal should adopt a presidential system, continue with the Parliamentary executive model, or explore a semi-presidential compromise. This two volume publication seeks to describe and analyse the remarkable and ambitious participatory constitution making process in Nepal and its challenges both with respect to process and substance. It also seeks to critically examine the difficult issues that have prevented Nepal to date from reaching agreement on the substance of the new constitution. Authors were identified so as to capture the range of views and opinions on a variety of constitutional issues that have featured in the national debate on constitutional reform. We hope that the collection of essays will contribute to a more informed debate that will in turn, lead to a successful conclusion to the process.
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Publisher:
UNDP, SPCBN
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(2014
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Type / Script:
Publication
in English
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Keywords:
FEDERALISM, CONSTITUTIONS, CONSTITUTION MAKING, STATE RESTRUCTURING, ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE, POST-CONFLICT RECONSTRUCTION, DECENTRALIZATION IN GOVERNMENT, PEACE AGREEMENT, CONSTITUTIONAL LAW, HUMAN RIGHTS, ETHNICITY, CULTURAL IDENTITY, DEVELOPMENT APPROACH, ASSIMILATION, CASTE, SOCIAL CLASSES, CULTURAL PLURALISM, REGIONALISM, SELF-RULE, SHARED RULE, POWER SHARING, NATIONAL POLICY, HARMONIZATION, DEVELOPMENT ASSISTANCE, POLITICAL SYSTEMS
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Thematic Group:
UNDP
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Social and Institutional Developoment
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Thesaurus:
01.01.00
- Political Conditions, Institutions, Movements
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Reference Link:
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