The Indigenous World 2024: Nepal
According to the Central Bureau of Statistics 2021 Census of Nepal, the total population of Indigenous Peoples in Nepal is 35.08%, which is 29,164,578. However, Indigenous academics and movement leaders believe they are the majority. Fifty-nine Indigenous Peoples in Nepal are formally recognized by the government, and 19 more are identified in the 2021 census but are yet to be formally recognized. All have been facing systematic discrimination, exclusion, and marginalization due to the effects of colonization and continued racism from the dominant Hindu patriarchy for centuries.
These systemic issues include land grabbing in various forms, criminalization of customary practices, militarization, involuntary eviction, and displacement due to development aggression using the Constitution, laws, policies, rules and regulations, directives, plans, and programmes. These practices are formulated and implemented without ever obtaining the free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC) of Indigenous Peoples and are manifested in many ways – visible and invisible. Nepal’s Indigenous Peoples have serious concerns about the continued violation, interference, abuse, and non-compliance of international laws and human rights standards, including International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention No. 169, the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), and Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) General Recommendation No. 39 (2022), which Nepal has ratified or adopted. Further, Nepal has done nothing to implement the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination’s (CERD) early warning and recommendations, or those made by the CEDAW committees.
2023 will be remembered as a year of resurgence and turbulence in the claiming of long overdue collective identity and land rights for Indigenous Peoples. The year was characterized by a do-or-die resistance movement committed to stopping further land grabbing and to fighting for the return of stolen lands, including the reinstatement of the land’s original Indigenous names.
This article is part of the 38th edition of The Indigenous World, a yearly overview produced by IWGIA that serves to document and report on the developments Indigenous Peoples have experienced. The photo above is of an Indigenous man harvesting quinoa in Sunimarka, Peru. This photo was taken by Pablo Lasansky, and is the cover of The Indigenous World 2024 where this article is featured. Find The Indigenous World 2024 in full here
Government tactics to cut off Indigenous Peoples
Nepal’s government has continued its efforts to cut off Indigenous Peoples’s lifelines by grabbing lands, especially forests, waters, pastures, and land through a fortress model of conservation, including national parks, wildlife reserves, hunting reserves, conservation areas, buffer zones, community forests as national forest, hydropower projects and other development aggression.[1] The government’s other tactics include criminalizing the pastoral way of life, collecting wild foods and medicine from customary forests, and imposing community forests in order to supersede Indigenous customary forest management.
“No Koshi” Movement
Province Number One’s assembly passed a resolution on 1 March to rename the province to Koshi. As the Renaming of Province Number One Joint Struggle Committee stated in its press statement issued on 9 June 2023, “The movement continues since the naming of Koshi on 1 March 2023 based on the ruler’s single race (clan) by force in guerilla style against the will of the people of the province.”[2]
The name change thus jumpstarted the creation of the “No Koshi” movement, which is fighting for two main demands: removal of the new name and renaming the province with full respect for the identity of its Indigenous population. During the movement’s protests, one protestor, Padam Kumar Limbu “Lajehang”, died after injuries sustained from police brutality; 69 peaceful protestors, including six Indigenous women, were injured by rubber bullets, water cannon and batons; 13 Indigenous persons, including three Indigenous women, are facing court cases, and one Indigenous person was jailed. One of the protestors, in particular, was severely beaten by the security forces even after suffering a gunshot wound to his knee. The attack was deliberate, as streetlights were turned off so that no-one could see or film the police’s actions. Sixty-eight peaceful protestors were arrested between 12 and 17 December 2023.[3]
Furthermore, the “No Koshi” movement publicly shamed 82 legislators from Province No. One who belonged to Indigenous Peoples but agreed to the renaming of Province No. 1 as Koshi Province as Bansha Gaddar.
Militarization and criminalization
There are clear indications that there was an increase in militarization and in police brutality against and criminalization of Indigenous Peoples and the Indigenous land rights movements in 2023.
The Tamang Indigenous People are struggling against land acquisition and suffering from threats, intimidation, harassment, pressure and, more importantly, militarization in their ancestral lands. For example, the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) – financed by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) and the Norwegian government – built the Tamakoshi-Sunkoshi corridor hydropower sub-station and power transmission line projects on their ancestral lands without obtaining their FPIC.
The NEA forcibly initiated project-related activities on 1 January 2023, deploying police and armed forces that resulted in Indigenous Peoples’ peaceful protests. The police threatened the protestors at gunpoint[4] and manhandled the Ward Chair,[5] women, and other protestors, causing injuries to at least a dozen people, including a ward member, and arrested 11 peaceful protestors, including a minor.
These actions drew the international community's attention through the petition “Nepal: Stop State Brutality against the Tamang Indigenous Peoples and Locals.” Again, on 17 November 2023, during a peaceful protest, eight were injured, and four were temporarily detained. On 18 November 2023, 11 were arrested from their homes, breaking down their doors in the process. The establishment and mobilization of the Armed Police Force in the village and the execution of the project have created an atmosphere of fear in the community. As a consequence, dozens of protestors have ended up being thrown in jail or beaten up by the security forces simply because they were demanding to be heard and to have a voice.[6]
The Tamang are fighting land grabbing on other fronts as well.
The Upper Tamakoshi Hydropower Victim Struggle Committee is leading the struggle, while Tamang DhungHyul Chogchen, a Tamang self-governance system (read more in the autonomy section below) is guiding the struggle. The government established the Shivapuri Nagarjun National Park in 2002 without obtaining the Tamang’s FPIC. Since then, the Park has been forcibly evicting the Tamang Indigenous Peoples from their ancestral land and destroying their way of life in the Buffer Zone. Park authorities and security personnel are using threats, intimidation, harassment, pressure, and a flood of corruption. The Shivapuri Nagarjuna National Park Victim Struggle Committee has led the struggle to return their lands since its establishment in 2023.[7]
As the Indigenous Magars have been protesting against the declaration of communities near the Dhorpatan Hunting Reserve as buffer zones, the government has been trying to establish a security post at Dimmurgaira in Putha-Uttarganga Rural Municipality in May without obtaining their FPIC.[8] The community members have not allowed the post to be established.
FPIC gone wrong
There are three basic categories of how free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC) is “implemented”: sincere or ideal FPIC, fake FPIC, and malicious FPIC; only two are implemented in Nepal.
Sincere or ideal FPIC, which is not practised in Nepal, is the meaningful implementation of the principle in line with the UNDRIP and CEDAW General Recommendation No. 39, among others.
However, the other two categories – Fake FPIC, as in the appearance of proper FPIC on paper, and malicious FPIC, meaning using the manipulation of people and information to obtain consent – are used extensively in Nepal by both government and businesses.
For example, Dr. Navin Rai's 2023 analytical report[9] found seven major structural and procedural gaps in the FPIC conducted for the Upper Trishuli Hydropower Project. These gaps included the company documenting its FPIC procedures long after it had already carried out the land expropriation from and physical displacement of the Tamang Indigenous Peoples in the area. Further, the company did not seek FPIC from the six community forest user groups or the wider Tamang community that would be affected by the projects; instead, it sought FPIC from an ad hoc “advisory council” comprised of informally selected individuals who did not represent or have a formally approved mandate from their respective communities. The company also did not give enough time for the affected communities to reach a consensus – only two months – and did not engage the community’s self-governing customary institutions, undermining the customary role of Tamang women in the decision-making process.[10]
Rai also noted that the international investment agencies involved, namely the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Dutch Entrepreneurial Development Bank FMO, are trying to sideline Indigenous Peoples and their demands by bypassing benefit sharing, addressing customary lands, and scaling up the security forces (police, armed police, army).
National Action Plan on Business and Human Rights
Private businesses, especially those involved in hydropower development, cable cars, cement factories, among others, continue to violate the human rights of Indigenous Peoples, despite the government’s endorsement of the National Action Plan (NAP) on Business and Human Rights on 27 December 2023, which should guide the work of businesses in terms of human rights.
The NAP comprises six thematic sectors: the environment, labour, consumers, women and children, migrant workers, and Indigenous Peoples, as well as an overall focus on gender equality and non-discrimination. The plan specifically states that the principle of FPIC relates to the meaningful participation of Indigenous Peoples, customary institutions, Indigenous persons with disability, women, children, and elders in the context of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and that it is committed to implementing the CEDAW recommendations.
Disappointingly, in the draft NAP, Indigenous judicial systems were recognized as mediation and conflict resolution mechanisms relating to disputes arising from business activity but they are not mentioned in the final plan. Based on experience and the current situation, the government is unlikely to implement the NAP seriously.
Land Rights Commission
Of the 984,000 new applications for individual land titles entered into the National Land Commission Information System (NALCIS), the commission identified 78,880 landless Dalits, 153,000 squatters, and 752,000 unorganized settlers, including Indigenous Peoples who are living on their ancestral lands or whose ancestral lands may be in other parts of Nepal. So far, the Land Rights Commission has distributed land rights certificates to only 4,500 applicants.[11]
The commission has been asking local bodies to provide information about empty lands where eligible landless and unorganized settlers could be settled, which poses serious consequences for Indigenous Peoples. For example, if the government resettles outsiders – Bahun, Chetri, Dalit, Madhesi, or Muslims – on Indigenous traditional lands, it means that those outsiders could own a piece of Indigenous ancestral land where Indigenous Peoples are currently in an overwhelming majority but where they could, in the future, become a numerical minority, thus losing custodianship of their lands due to such resettlement.
Climate crisis
In his remarks at the Opening of the event “Call of the Mountains: who saves us from the climate crisis?” at COP 28, UN Climate Change Conference, António Guterres, UN Secretary-General said:
Just weeks ago, I was standing in the mighty Himalayas … it is deeply shocking to learn how fast the Himalayan glaciers are melting … and deeply distressing to hear first-hand from local communities about the terrible impact on their lives. Nepal, and other vulnerable mountain countries, are being pounded by a crisis that is not of their making. The country has lost close to a third of its ice in just over thirty years – a direct result of the greenhouse [gas] pollution heating our planet.[12]
Unfortunately, in his speech delivered in Nepal from Chyanboche near Chomolungma (Mt. Everest) and Dhaulagiri Base camp and in Dubai during COP 28, the UN Secretary-General did not mention Indigenous Peoples directly. Nor did Nepal’s Prime Minister mention Indigenous Peoples in his speeches at COP 28.
If the UN Secretary-General’s call for help for Nepal materializes in the form of a climate fund or climate action, Indigenous Peoples in Nepal fear – based on experience – that the dominant caste group would siphon off the bulk of the money with only a trickle reaching local communities, and even less to almost nothing reaching Indigenous Peoples as there would also be no separate climate fund for Indigenous Peoples and no specific conditionality for such in a memorandum.
UN Special Rapporteur academic visit
Mr. Francisco Calí Tzay, UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous Peoples, paid an academic visit to Nepal from 9-18 September 2023 with an invitation from the Central Department of Anthropology, Tribhuvan University (TU). The rapporteur delivered a special comment on development and Indigenous Peoples' issues in Nepal. During his visit, he also heard from the survivors of development aggression in Ye (“Kathmandu”), Damak, Dharan, and Basantapur in Eastern Nepal.
He further participated in a land rights conference and public hearing and visited Menchayem (Tin Jure-Milke Jaljale conservation area) in the ancestral lands of the Yakthung (Limbu) Indigenous Peoples. Background papers were presented on: (1) Issues and challenges of Indigenous Peoples and development in Asia,[13] (2) The Indigenist concept and practice of land tenure in Nepal,[14] (3) Problems and challenges of existing legal and policy frameworks regarding development,[15] and (4) Resurgence of self-determined development.[16]
The rapporteur noted that the accounts of land grabbing and human rights violations suffered by Indigenous Peoples are almost the same in all parts of the world.
Beginnings of autonomy
Given the government’s lack of action in implementing treaty body recommendations and court decisions, and the Indigenous movement’s legitimate demands, compounded by the continued oppression and harsh treatment Indigenous Peoples suffer, some have started work on declaring and implementing autonomy and self-rule, following the example of such Indigenous nations as the Wampis in Peru, and defending it at any cost.
For example, the Tamang of DungHyul adopted the DungHyul Tamang Chyugchen (Statute of Self-Government) as part of the HyulThim (Village Assembly) and the 13 points Kulba (Order) on 25 January 2023, which included stipulations that that the ten Hyuls would be autonomous areas within the Tamang Nation, and Tamang DungHyul Chyugchen customary self-government system would be implemented. These documents form the Indigenous Constitution and the rule of law of the Tamang.
The Yakthung (Limbu) and Magar are also on their way to doing so.[17]
CEDAW shadow report
In its concluding observation and recommendation to Nepal on 14 November 2018,[18] CEDAW made 15 recommendations, including an amendment to the Constitution to explicitly recognize self-determination and the rights of Indigenous women, with a focus on Indigenous women and girls and Indigenous women and girls with disabilities. However, as of August 2023, no responses had been made to these recommendations and there was no mention of CEDAW General Recommendation No. 39 (2021) in the government’s seventh periodic report submitted to CEDAW.[19]
Legislation on Indigenous languages as official language
Province No. Three enacted legislation on 9 November, 2023 making Tamang and Newar languages its official languages.
A movement against the criminalization of cross-cousin marriage
Advocate Bhagwati Panday made a seriously objectionable remark in a television interview to the effect that Tamang, Magar, and others who have a tradition of cross-cousin marriage are criminals because it is incestuous, and that children born of such marriages are born criminals. Her statement created a furore among the Tamang and Magar communities, who demonstrated in front of the police post in Kathmandu demanding the arrest of Panday and that she be brought to justice.
Human rights NGO the Informal Sector Service Centre (INSEC) reported that one of the protestors, “Dilmaya Tamang, who sustained injuries from the police beating, is currently undergoing treatment at the National Trauma Centre in Mahabouddha … revealed to INSEC that after her arrest and while inside the police office, she was beaten with sticks and boots.”[20] Peaceful protestors such as Neruta Tamang not only suffer police torture in custody but receive threats of rape and killing.[21]
Krishna B. Bhattachan belongs to the TaMhang (Thakali) Indigenous Peoples. He is one of the founding faculty members and former head, now retired, of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Tribhuvan University in Nepal. He is associated with the Lawyers´ Association for Human Rights of Nepalese Indigenous Peoples (LAHURNIP) as an adviser and Indigenous expert. He is a member of the Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact Regional Team on Indigenous Peoples' Autonomy and Self-Government. He has published several books and articles on Indigenous issues. His latest publication is Customary Self-Government Systems of the TaMhang (Thakali) Nation published in 2023 by the AIPP.
This article is part of the 38th edition of The Indigenous World, a yearly overview produced by IWGIA that serves to document and report on the developments Indigenous Peoples have experienced. The photo above is of an Indigenous man harvesting quinoa in Sunimarka, Peru. This photo was taken by Pablo Lasansky, and is the cover of The Indigenous World 2024 where this article is featured. Find The Indigenous World 2024 in full here
Notes and references
[1] Advocate Shankar Limbu explained it in detail during a community-level meeting with the Magar Indigenous Peoples of a Magar village in Baglung on 22 November 2023.
[2] Pradesh No. 1 Puna: Namaankan Samyukta Sangharsha Samiti, Bigyapti. 2080 Jeth 26 gate. Text in Khas Nepali.
[3] Data provided by the Kiarat Yakthung Chumlung, member organization of the Joint Struggle Committee for Renaming Province No. 1.
[4] Struggle Against Marginalization of Nationalities, Facebook, 4 January 2023. https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=856114042394450&set=pb.100067396004945.-2207520000
[5] A ward is the smallest administrative unit under Nepalese local government. The Ward Chair and members are the directly elected representatives of the residents of the ward.
[6] Tamang, RK and Galimbeti, Simone 2024. How development projects can go wrong when they disregard the rights of the indigenous people. Nepal Live Today. 2 January 2024.
[7] The True Story Award awarded Tamang journalist and poet Raju Syangtan’s story: “Jangal Khosyo, Jamin Khosyo: Ahile Basti Khosdaicha” [“Grabbed Forest, Grabbed Land: Now Grabbing the settlement”] on land grabbing by this park. True Story Award 2024. Syangtan, Rau 2023. “Jangal Khosyo, Jamin Khosyo: Ahile Basti Khosdaicha”. Naya Patrika Daily. 21 January 2023. https://truestoryaward.org/shortlist/2024#s363
[8] Chalise, Jibaraj. 2023. ”Dhorpatan arachyasanga kina trasta chan sthaniya?” Himal Khabar. 1 March 2023.
https://www.himalkhabar.com/news/134626
[9] Rai, Navin K. 2023. “Free, Prior and Informed Consent of the Tamang Indigenous Peoples of Nepal: An Independent Assessment on Compliance with the IFC Performance Standards in the Upper Trishuli-1 Hydroelectric Project.” Kathmandu: Lawyers’ Association for Human Rights of Nepalese Indigenous Peoples (LAHURNIP), Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact (AIPP), and International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs (IWGIA). June 2023. Pages 1 & 2. https://www.iwgia.org/en/resources/publications/5252-fpic-tamang-nepal-hydropwer.html
[10] Ibid
[11] “Adhamulyama Srakari Jagga Bandne Sarkarko Tyari.” Online Khabar. 15 December 2023. https://www.onlinekhabar.com/2023/12/1405279
[12] António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations at the Opening of the event "Call of the Mountains: who saves us from the climate crisis?" COP28, UN Climate Change Conference. UN Web TV. https://webtv.un.org/en/asset/k1o/k1o8pg0ygs?fbclid=IwAR3f_MsSTXCl0lwlBQYL-s5ftEaKkmI_ywJ9oS3Ynr-QMklvPJnNDh0NpH8
[13] Presented by Gam Simray, General Secretary, Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact (AIPP).
[14] Presented by Susma Rai, faculty member, Department of Anthropology, Tribhuvan University.
[15] Presented by Advocate Shankar Limbu, Vice Chair, Lawyers’ Association for Human Rights of Nepalese Indigenous Peoples (LAHURNIP).
[16] Presented by Dr. Krishna Bhattachan, former Head, Department of Sociology & Anthropology, Tribhuvan University.
[17] Swasahit Tamang DungHyul Chogchhen antargat Hyulharuko Sanchalan tatha Byabasthapanko lagi jari Kulba (Adesh). 24 January 2023. Text in Khas Nepali.
[18] IWGIA. 2019. The Indigenous World 2019: Nepal. https://www.iwgia.org/en/nepal/3457-iw2019-nepal.html
[19] United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. “Seventh periodic report submitted by Nepal under Article 18 of the Convention, due in 2022.” 3 August 2023. https://www.ecoi.net/en/file/local/2095255/N2323006.pdf and
https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=CEDAW%2FC%2FNPL%2F7&Lang=en
[20] INSEC Online. “Arrested Activists Tortured by Police.” 4 August 2023. https://inseconline.org/en/news/arrested-activists-tortured-by-police/
[21] Rhythm online tv. YouTube. 3 August 2023. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYSv7Dqu6DA&pp=ygUNbmVydXRhIHRhbWFuZw%3D%3D
Tags: Land rights, Climate, Autonomy , Criminalisation , Cultural Integrity
