February 2009 – Kathmandu
The “International Conference on the Constitution Making of Nepal” was held 13-15 February 2009, in Budhanilkantha, Kathmandu, Nepal. This conference was convened to discuss the many issues facing Nepal as it seeks to write and adopt a new constitution. Experts from Nepal and other countries met to discuss the principles of federalism, the judiciary, human rights and secularism, and human rights and gender. Speakers at the Inaugural Session on 13 February included Former Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala; C.P. Mainali, General Secretary, Nepal Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist) and member of the Constituent Assembly; Khim Lal Devkota, Member, United Nepal Communist Party (Maoist) and Member of the Constituent Assembly and of its Constitutional Drafting Committee; and Brijesh Kumar Gupta, Tarai Maesh Loktantric Party. These leaders of major political parties discussed major positions of their respective parties on the desired contents of the constitution. Professor Kanak Bikram Thapa, former Dean of the Faculty of Law of Tribhuvan University, gave introductory remarks. Sujata Koirala, Former Minister, Central Committee Member of Nepali Congress and Head of Foreign Department of the Nepali Congress Party chaired the session. Foreign participants at the conference included Professor Tahir Mahmood, Member of the Law Commission of India; and Professor W. Cole Durham, Jr., J. Reuben Clark Law School, Brigham Young University, USA.