BBC - March 30, 2006

Nepal ratified CEDAW (the UN convention on elimination of all forms of discrimination against women), which recognises marriage and family rights as important and inalienable rights of women, in 1991.

Article 11 of the Constitution of Nepal also guarantees legal equality between men and women.

But when it came to actual practice these assurances were not worth the paper they were printed on.

Women's rights activists in Nepal have hailed a Supreme Court's ruling to scrap a law that allowed men to seek divorce if their partner was infertile.

Under the 43-year-old law, men were able to file for divorce if they could prove through a doctor their wives were unable to conceive for 10 years. Activists said the court verdict was a milestone towards scrapping laws that were discriminatory towards women.

The court has issued a number of rulings on women's rights recently. The latest ruling was made on Thursday, a year after a case was filed by a Kathmandu-based women's rights group. The group said that the law did not consider the fact that men can also be responsible for a couple not being able to have children. The court said the provision in the divorce law allowing men to divorce their partners on grounds of infertility was against the spirit of the country's constitution and international law. The court asked the government to scrap the law, and bring in a new one to avoid inconsistencies.

A series of 'Progressive Judgements'

The latest court verdict has come in a series of what rights activists have praised as progressive judgments by the Supreme Court. Last December the court asked the government to scrap a "discriminatory" rule that women must ask permission of family members before selling inherited property. The court also eased the regulations for women to obtain passports and ruled that women should not suffer discrimination during the menstruation cycle.

The court also asked the government not to recruit underage boys into the security forces. It said the recruitment contravened the country's constitution and international children's rights treaties that Nepal had signed.

How Bad Was it?  Really? 

Look at this sidebar from the Nepali Times from Febr4uary 26, 2001.  The old rules of divorce, before the changes, are clearly laid out. (.pdf)