Kathmandu, May 22
Female lawmakers have called on the government to remove the statute of limitation for rape in Nepal.
A meeting of female lawmakers held in the House of Representatives on Sunday called on the government to remove such a provision, especially in the case of minors.
This comes after a girl last week released a series of videos saying she was drugged, raped and blackmailed by an organiser of a beauty pageant when she was 16 in 2014.
CPN-UML’s Binda Pandey during the meeting asked the government to take the case seriously and take action against the perpetrators. She also called on the government to amend the law.
“If you want a statute of limitation, fine; but maybe it was time we revised it to the date the incident was made public by the survivor,” said Pandey during the meeting.
She showed anger at how the government did not take these incidents seriously even when women were being subject to rape and harassment time and again.
“How can we have such a statute of limitation for young women. It doesn’t make sense so we need to change the law and remove this,” Pandey said calling on her fellow lawmakers to push the government to amend the law as soon as possible.
Similarly, Nepali Congress lawmaker Pushpa Bhusal called on the government to give justice to the woman as soon as possible.
Maoist Centre’s Amrita Thapa Magar said the government should offer relief to the young woman who had to undergo such a heinous act at such a young age. She also stated that since incidents like these were seen as a common affair in Nepal’s entertainment scene, it was time something was done about it.
“This will only end if everyone works together,” Thapa Magar said.
