Kathmandu, National Assembly (NA) Chair Ganesh Timilsina has said it is not enough only writing about equal participation in laws, but they should be translated into action. The Chairperson of the upper house of the Federal Parliament said so while addressing a programme entitled ‘A Complete Citizen with Full Rights: Equal Rights in Citizenship’, organized here today by the Forum for Women, Law and Development (FWLD) on the occasion of the 44th anniversary of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).

“Equal rights and participation are mentioned in the laws, but they are not translated into action in daily life,” he said and stressed on the need of bringing these provisions into practice to establish their relevance. Giving examples from several developed countries where although these provisions are not written down in the laws but have been implemented in practice, the NA Chair said reservation and special rights are to be implemented for a certain period of time only and competitiveness should be prioritized after that.

He said the Act having provisions of issuing Nepali citizenship to a foreign woman married to a Nepali citizen immediately after the marriage was enacted amidst controversy. Recalling the provision in the Indian laws whereby a woman marrying to an Indian man can apply for Indian citizenship only after seven years of marriage and residence in India, he said Nepali citizens marry with Indian and Chinese citizens also. National Assembly member Dr Bimala Rai Paudyal said the legal provision is such that on the one hand it looks at the daughter with suspicion while viewing the daughter-in-law (a foreign woman married to a Nepali man) with trust.

“A daughter of a Nepali citizen marrying with an Indian national has to wait for seven years to become the citizen of India whereas a woman who is a citizen of India marrying a Nepali man can apply for a Nepali citizenship immediately after marrying. We passed the Act with such provision. We the poor lawmakers are compelled to endorse such provisions from the parliament even after knowing that the provision is discriminatory thinking the ‘masters’ will be upset with us,” she remarked, indicating how the lawmakers are not free to take decisions independently in the name of toeing the party whip.

Another member of NA, Anita Devkota said there is discrimination between son and daughter in the Citizenship laws, stressing on the need of establishing the equal rights of daughter to the ancestral properties. FWLD executive director Sabin Shrestha presented a paper on citizenship laws, calling on the lawmakers to put to an end the situation of provisions written in the constitution itself not being reflected in the laws.