Laud equal rights for women in Nepal constitution
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KATHMANDU, March 28: Lawmakers from Germany, who were on a five-day visit to Nepal, said they are impressed by Nepal's new constitution for giving equal rights to women.
"Nepal's new constitution's feature that gives equal rights for women impressed us," Dagmar Wöhrl, chairperson of the Committee on Economic Cooperation and Development, who led the delegation of German parliamentarians told a group of journalists in Kathmandu, just before wrapping up their Nepal visit on Saturday.
After seeing earthquake-affected people languishing in flimsy tents and unsafe shelters, they concluded that the way the National Reconstruction Authority (NRA) has been carrying out its tasks, is too slow and too procedural.
"We found that the NRA is concentrated more on guidelines and procedures. It needs to act quickly and not in a bureaucratic way," she said. "In such emergency time, relevant temporary laws should be formulated to expedite works."
She also reminded that the German government committed 30 million euros to support the reconstruction of primary health facilities and district hospitals as well as the rehabilitation of local infrastructure and energy supply in Nepal and that the German aid money must be spent within a period of one year. "As per our national laws we have to return the aid which is the money contributed by our taxpayers if it isn't spent within a year," she said.
She also said that the work progress may discourage those who had announced support for reconstruction and rehabilitation work in the international conference held immediately after the earthquake.
Also, the visiting German parliamentarians weren't impressed by the progress made by two transitional justice bodies -- Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) and the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappeared Persons (CIED).
She said they will submit a report to German parliament on their findings on Nepal visit and later the there will be a discussion on that in their House.
