Submitted by crinadmin on
Summary: This is a report of the state of the
rights of the child of Nepal in 1997.
The information is based on the up-
dated statistics and records compiled
and collected from different sources,
both within and outside CWIN.
PREFACE
The rights of the child are both need and demand of the era, so
no
one can deny the importance of their essence. Considerably,
there has
been a progressive change in socio-cultural, political and
economic
attitudes of the people, community and the government of Nepal
in the
direction of child's rights compared to previous years. Both
governmental and non-governmental agencies of the country
have been
making effort to translate the spirit of the UN Convention on the
Rights of the Child into practice. In spite of all these positive
efforts and initiatives, however, different forms of child rights
violations still exist in the country as a matter of fact.
In the last 10 years, considerable changes have occurred in the
awareness level of the society in the areas of child's rights.
Issues
of children used to be non-issues in our country and children
have
long been taken for granted. Every year, thousands of children
die of
preventable diseases in lack of basic knowledge in child rearing
and
child feeding. Children are regarded as family property, therefore,
parents generally do not hesitate to exchange the childhood of
their
children for nominal economic benefits. Sending children in school
for education is a growing trend in the society, however, girl
children are still denied equal opportu-nity as compared to boys.
And
school drop-out or pull-out rate for girl children is very high due
to various reasons including their early marriage.
After the restoration of democracy, HMG/Nepal has made a wide
range
of commitments to ensure and promote the rights of the child in
the
country. It has declared its political commitment in the fields of
child health, child education, child labour, administration of
juvenile justice and so on. However, due to a lack of clear vision,
working mechanism and partnership programme with social
organisations, such declarations have become nothing more than
a
political slogan. No political slogan or commitment can ever be
fulfilled in the absence of strong political will. Unfortunately, the
political parties in Nepal have concentrated more in power politics
than in resolving people's basic problems. None of the political
parties in Nepal have given priority to the child's rights in their
political agenda. Their commitments have remained just a lip
service.
Working for children requires feeling as well as commitment to
action. It is an investment for the future. Without ensuring rights
to the children, no country can achieve democracy, social justice
and
development in a real sense. Working for child's right, therefore,
is
an action for social change and education is the most vital way to
promote and protect the rights of the child. Education is a right,
not a privilege. But education should be meaningful, functional
and
scientific. Previous experiences have proved that government
effort
is not enough and effective without people's participation.
Therefore, we need active social mobilisation.
On the occasion of the CWIN's 10th anniversary, we had initiated
to
publish the state of the rights of the child in Nepal. This year, we
have published this Country Report which contains wider
information
including more facts, figures and case stories. This will continue
until the year 2000 AD. The first objective of this publication is to
up-date the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights
of the
Child (CRC) in the context of Nepal. The second objective is to
disseminate information for public knowledge and make people
aware in
order to help protect the rights of the child. The third objective is
to review and analyse the inspirations and frustra-tions in the
implementation of the rights of the child. The fourth is to expose
the violations of the rights of the child and highlight the good
work
being done for the rights of the child. And the fifth and the last
objective of this initiative is to explore the possibility and
potentiality of partnership among different actors of society to
promote the rights of the child movement in Nepal.
This is a report of the state of the rights of the child of Nepal in
1997. The information is based on the up-dated statisyics and
records
compiled and collected in the CWIN Information Centre from
different
sources, both within and outside CWIN.
I hope this report will be useful to all, particularly to the people
and organisa-tions working for the rights of the child both from
the
governmental and non-goernmental sectors. I am thankful to all
who
have worked hard for the preparation of this report. I wish the
coming year will see a lot of inspiring work for children in Nepal
and elsewhere.
Gauri Pradhan
President, CWIN