Honorable Chairperson of the National Women’s Commission Ms. Nainakala Thapa,
Honorable Commissioners,
Honorable Constituent Assembly members and Distinguished Guests,
I am very happy and honoured to join you at the opening of this Roundtable on Strategies for addressing discriminatory citizenship provisions against women in the forthcoming Constitution. I applaud the National Women’s Commission for its year-long campaign “End Gender-Based Discrimination in Citizenship” which started on the eve of the 100th International Women’s Day on 7 March, this year.
The principles of equality and non-discrimination are at the very core of international human rights law. Over thirty years have passed since the adoption of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and fifteen years gone by since commitments were undertaken to eliminate discrimination in the context of the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing. We have the normative and policy framework at the international level which should ensure equality for women in law and practice.