Cary Alan Johnson

IGLHRC (The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission) and Lambda Legal are working with Nepali government leaders as they explore how to include protections for LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) people in the country's laws.

Cary Alan Johnson, IGLHRC's Executive Director, said:
"Nepal has become a world leader in LGBT rights,We commend Nepali lawmakers for their consideration of the LGBT community and we congratulate the civil society in Nepal on their advocacy and success. These efforts should be a model for nations seeking to develop legal protections for LGBT people."

Prior to the 2007 Supreme Court ruling that directed Nepal's Parliament to end all forms of legal discrimination against the LGBT community, police abuse was common, including the 2004 murder of a meti (transgender woman) by a police officer. Resulting from the ruling was a study and drafting committee which includes representatives of the ministries of law, population and environment, as well the National Commission on Human Rights and national police. According to the Supreme Court's direction, the committee will consider how other countries have extended full rights - including the right to marry - to their LGBT citizens.

A member of Lambda Legal said:
"It's extraordinarily encouraging that the senior government officials who make up this committee are so committed to educating themselves about the lives of LGBT people and to extending full citizenship to this and other marginalized minority groups. Other countries, including the United States, would do well to follow their example. The Court's decision is part of a growing international awareness that sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination causes real harm to real people. The timing, just as Nepal is drafting a new constitution and inspired to secure equality for all Nepali citizens, couldn't be better."

Activist Sunil Pant - now a member of Parliament and of the Constituent Assembly drafting the new constitution - founded the Blue Diamond Society to help the LGBT community defend itself. The Blue Diamond Society and three other groups filed the successful 2007 lawsuit demanding the government recognize the civil rights of transgender (or "third gender") people without requiring them to affirm one gender identity instead of another; create a new law forbidding discrimination and violence against LGBT communities; and require the state to make reparations to LGBT victims of state violence and discrimination.

Pant said:
"The Court found that LGBT people are 'natural persons' and that we deserve the same protections as everyone else. The extraordinary thing is that Nepal is in many ways still a very conservative, traditional country. The movement for LGBT rights is just beginning, but the Court and the government have thus far outpaced many western countries with long-established civil rights movements. We still face many problems, but we've made an enormous amount of progress in a short time."

Pant hopes to arrange for the study and drafting committee to travel to countries that have eliminated the different-gender requirement for marriage and that provide other essential legal protections to LGBT people couples.

For more information view:
www.iglhrc.org