On 16 July 2025, the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), in collaboration with local partners – Forum for Women, Law and Development (FWLD), KOSHISH and the Nepal Disabled Women Association (NDWA)– made a submission to the UN Human Rights Council’s Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) ahead of its review of Nepal’s human rights record in January 2026.
In this submission, the organizations jointly raised concerns regarding:
- discrimination against women and girls with disabilities;
- barriers to access to justice for women and girls with disabilities;
- denial of the right to legal capacity of person with disabilities; and
- violations of the right of persons with disabilities to live independently and be included in the community.
In light of these concerns, in their joint submission the ICJ, FWLD, KOSHISH and NDWA called upon the UPR Working Group and the Human Rights Council to make a series of recommendations to the Nepalese authorities, including the following:
- Adopt a comprehensive anti-discrimination legislation that includes a clear and comprehensive definition of “discrimination against women”, including on the basis of gender and disability and explicitly prohibit discrimination against women and intersectional discrimination in line with Article 1 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and Articles 1, 3, 5 and 6 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD);
- Ensure equal access to justice for women and girls with disabilities by providing procedural support and accessible services upon request, in accordance with Articles 2 and 5 of CEDAW and Articles 6 and 13 of the CRPD;
- Strengthen judicial training by ensuring that the National Judicial Academy develop, adopt and implement judicial rules and guidelines on access to justice for persons with disabilities in consultation with persons with disabilities, with a particular focus on ensuring the provision of procedural accommodations, and enhancing supported decision-making;
- Repeal or amend all discriminatory laws that fail to recognize the right to legal capacity of persons with disabilities and contain stigmatizing terms like “insane” or of “unsound mind”; and
- Adopt a national deinstitutionalization policy that includes short-term, medium-term and long-term plans based upon community inclusion (Article 19 of CRPD) and the CRPD Committee’s Deinstitutionalization guidelines.
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Contact
Karuna Parajuli, Legal Adviser, ICJ Asia and the Pacific Programme, e: karuna.parajuli@icj.org
