"I encourage you to seek inspiration from systems of other countries, but then go ahead and develop your own Nepali model of state organization -- a system that will best meet your needs and aspirations," she said, while addressing a gathering of CA members at the CA building in New Baneshwar Monday. [break]
While appreciating Nepal´s efforts to increase representation of women and other marginalized groups, she said representation of women in Nepal´s CA was higher than in Swiss Federal Parliament. She said they have no reserved seats in the parliament. Currently the Speakers of both chambers of the Swiss parliament are women.
"In addition, a majority of our members of government are women and the president of Switzerland is a woman too. This means that this year, the highest positions in our country are all occupied by women," she said. But since the positions for President of Switzerland and of the two chambers of parliament change every year, next year the situation will be different. She said the system in her country is not perfect but it is evolving and equality is improving.
Citing experiences of her own country, she said constitution-writing can be a long and sometimes frustrating process. "Our current constitution dates back to 1999 and we needed several attempts until we managed to draft a text that could muster the necessary majorities in parliament and in a popular referendum," Wyss explained. According to her, the process took a long time, even though they were only aiming to make small changes.
She was of the view that countries with a diverse population are not always easy to govern. "The challenge for you and for us will always be to make use of this human diversity to create unity and strength, by making sure that those who do not have the loudest voice or the most power are included in a meaningful way in the political and economic process of our respective countries," she said.
Addressing the same function, Speaker Subas Nembang said the rich experiences of the Swiss federalism have been useful in the process of constitution-making in Nepal.
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