Special Measures for Women and their Impact - April 2003

Women in Nepal have been discriminated on the basis of gender for centuries. The discrimination is due to the culturally evolved gender-based differences. Such discrimination has lead to their subordinate status in the society while cultural behavior, laws and institutional mechanisms reinforce the same. The substantive equality approach always keeps in mind the historical reality and present background of the group, and tries its best to correct the past experience and create conditions that would lead them to be substantive equals. The corrective approach followed by substantive model of equality recognizes that in order to redistribute the benefits equally between women and men, special rights to transform the unequal power relations between women and men is required. In order to address the gender gap, special measures for women are entirely consistent with equality jurisprudence.

The study “Special Measures for Women and their Impact” supported by The Asia Foundation, conducted in the year 2003, had identified 150 legal provisions based on the substantive approach to equality that have been enacted with an objective of the advancement of Nepali women and to facilitate them in their respective fields.

The main objectives of the study were:

•  To review State's obligations to achieve substantive equality for women
•  To map the special laws for women
•  To study the impact of special laws enacted for women
•  To identify gaps and weaknesses in the existing special laws and
• To make recommendations for appropriate measures required to achieve substantive     equality

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