Miscellaneous
Resolution motion fails to make it to House discussion
A resolution motion proposing inclusion of issues against rape and gender-based violence in school textbooks has yet to be tabled in the House of Representatives following reservations from ruling parity lawmakers.A resolution motion proposing inclusion of issues against rape and gender-based violence in school textbooks has yet to be tabled in the House of Representatives following reservations from ruling parity lawmakers.
On July 5, Nepal Communist Party lawmaker Binda Pandey along with other women lawmakers had registered the motion seeking Parliament’s approval amid a significant rise in reports of rape and violence against women. Although the motion was enlisted on the House agenda on July 15, it was latter withdrawn.
The Parliament Secretariat had put it on the agenda again on Monday, Pandey explained, but it was removed from the business of the HoR in the last hour. Pandey and her colleagues have not been told why the motion did not feature in the discussion. “I thought it would be discussed today [Monday]. The Speaker could tell you why it hasn’t been tabled for more than a month,” Pandey said.
Sources said the party’s top leadership was not content that the motion as it had been tabled without prior discussion. The leadership believes, according to an informed source, the language of the motion sounded like it was guided by the agenda of non-government agencies. The motion says “based on the provisions envisioned by the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, the awareness on the issue of gender-based violence and rape should be raised at three levels of government and should be incorporated in the school level textbooks”.
Officials at the secretariat said the issue was being discussed at the House’s Proposal Selection Sub-Committee which comprises the leaders from the NCP itself. “The sub-committee is discussing the motion,” Secretary at the HoR Gopal Nath Yogi told the Post. The sub-committee is entitled to make prior selection of the proposals which are tabled in the House.
Yogi said the panel was going through the content and language of the motion. The selection process generally gets over in a couple days, but it has already been 38 days since the motion was registered in the HoR. If endorsed it would be morally binding for the government to incorporate the issues in the textbooks though it has no legal obligation. (PR)