Baseline Study on Inheritance Rights of Women - 1999

When advocates Meera Dhungana and Meera Khanal filed a writ petition in 1993 challenging the discriminatory provision that required a daughter to be unmarried and of 35 years of age to receive her share of parental property, it was not taken seriously and no one predicted the national debate this issue would generate. In response to this writ petition, the Supreme Court issued a directive order to the government to introduce a Bill within a year for the consideration of the then existing family laws relating to property.

Besides the Court's order, not much interest was shown by the concerned agencies to initiate the process of introducing a Bill and amending the discriminatory inheritance rights provisions. Even to begin the process of introducing a Bill in accordance with the court's decision, Forum for Women, Law and Development (FWLD) filed another case of contempt of court against the government. One of the reasons for little interest of the general public was the perception that the issue was influenced by Western value system, and was raised by few urban feminist women. However, for women rights activists the issue of equal inheritance rights was not only about material gain but also about the basic human rights and human dignity of women.

Consequently, this issue generated various mixed views, concerns and assumptions which eventually making the issue one of prime national concern. There was a difference of views at different levels: community level, civil society and the government bodies. On this background, it was crucial to build a common consensus among the different groups working for gender equality and to move ahead with full force to achieve the goal. The need was to assess the situation of the country on the issue and to develop workable future strategies. Therefore, a “Baseline Study on Inheritance Right of Women” was conducted by FWLD with the support from International Women's Rights Action Watch - Asia Pacific (IWRAW - AP) in the year 1999. This study assessed the situation on ground and made future plan of action for civil societies for achieving equal inheritance rights of women. On the basis of the recommendations made by the study, women's group across the country carried out various activities to achieve the goal.

Following the directive order of the Supreme Court, the government introduced the Country Code (Eleventh Amendment) Bill. Several NGOs and members of the civil society worked closely to improve the Bill, and as a result many progressive changes were made in the government's Bill. Ultimately, the Lower House passed the Bill on March 14, 2001 and the Bill received the Royal Assent on September 26, 2002 .

Though the Eleventh Amendment to the Country Code repeals many of the discriminatory provisions with regard to inheritance rights of women, it still retains some discriminatory provisions. Currently, the challenge is ensuring the effective implementation of rights provided by the amendment and the elimination of all remaining discriminatory provisions.

The objective of the Baseline Study was to assess the status of Nepalese women in relation to inheritance right, to identify the causes for discriminatory inheritance right to women, to analyze its effects on women, to identify the state obligations in relations to equal inheritance right, identify gaps and weaknesses on activities of government and societies and develop future strategies for the law reform. The Baseline Study on Inheritance Rights provided basic guidelines to the civil society to conduct and target their activities for the amendments in the law to ensure equal inheritance rights to women. The circumstances have changed after the eleventh amendment of the Country Code and new challenges confront us. Therefore, the study had been updated while also developing a new future plan of action to implement the amended law and eliminate remaining discriminatory provisions against women. The updated study “Inheritance Rights of Nepali Women: Journey Towards Equality” conducted in the year 2004 by FWLD and supported by IWRAW – AP was conducted mainly with the following objectives:

• To document government and civil society initiatives to achieve equal inheritance rights for women;
• To identify the challenges in achieving equal inheritance rights;
• To develop future strategies for realizing the rights;
• To develop monitoring framework for the implementation of amended laws.

The study covers the situation of existing law of inheritance for girls and women, initiatives of government and civil societies to bring equal inheritance rights and remaining challenges. The study also attempts to develop the monitoring indicators to examine the implementation of amended laws and future strategies to ensure equal inheritance rights to women.

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