Constitutional Politics and Indigenous Peoples in Nepal

This report is the result of a monitoring visit to assess IWGIA’s support to promoting and defending indigenous peoples’ rights in the new constitution and beyond. Indigenous peoples in Nepal, known as adivasi janajati, have for centuries experienced systematic discrimination and marginalisation both socially, culturally, politically and economically. The chance to right the historical wrongs came when Nepal embarked upon a constitution drafting and state restructuring process in 2008. Indigenous peoples engaged in this process right from the beginning and IWGIA has supported these efforts, mainly through support to the Lawyers’ Association for Human Rights of Nepalese Indigenous Peoples (LAHURNIP) directly and the Indigenous Mega Front indirectly. The support to LAHURNIP was initiated in 2008 and focused on securing indigenous peo¬ples’ rights in the new constitution. Since 2013, support has also been provided to LAHURNIP’s work with concrete cases of hu¬man rights violations committed against indigenous peoples in Nepal.