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The Supreme Court of Nepal has ruled in favor of same-sex marriage since 2008. On 28 June 2023, Supreme Court Justice Til Prasad Shrestha directed the government to establish a "separate register" for "sexual minorities and non-traditional couples" and to "temporarily register them". [1] [2] However, the Supreme Court has yet to deliver a final verdict. [3] [4] [5] A first hearing was expected to begin on 14 March 2024. [6]
Despite the Supreme Court directive, a district court in Kathmandu denied a same-sex couple's application to marry on 13 July 2023. [7] [8] The couple appealed to the Patan High Court, but it rejected the appeal on 6 October 2023. [9] In the last week of November 2023, they were informed by the Ministry of Home Affairs that local administration offices may register the marriage. The couple successfully registered their marriage on 29 November 2023, followed by several more couples over the following months. [10] [11] [12] [13] However, no supporting legislation has been passed. [14]
In March 2023, the Supreme Court ordered the government to recognize a same-sex marriage performed in Germany and directed the Federal Parliament to legalize same-sex marriage in Nepal. [15] However, the Parliament did not pass a national same-sex marriage law.
In 2011 and 2012, as the country was undergoing a political transition, there was an attempt to add LGBT-inclusive language to the proposed constitution. However, negotiations among political factions failed in spring 2012 and the drafting of a new constitution was placed on hold until new elections were held. A constitution was approved by the Constituent Assembly on 16 September 2015, [16] and while it includes "gender and sexual minorities" as a protected category, it does not address same-sex marriages. [17] The National Code of Nepal enacted in 2018 explicitly defines marriage as "when a man and a woman accept each other as husband and wife". [18]
The Marriage Registration Act, 1971 does not explicitly forbid same-sex marriage but generally refers to married spouses as "male or female" and requires that the spouses take one another as "a husband and a wife". [19] The National Code of Nepal, enacted in August 2018, explicitly defines marriage as "when a man and a woman accept each other as husband and wife". While the National Code was under discussion in the Federal Parliament, the government requested that provisions addressing same-sex marriage be omitted from the draft code. Activists called this out as unconstitutional and contrary to Supreme Court guidelines. [20] A spokesman said that the government intended to pass a separate law on same-sex marriage. [21]
Despite these restrictions, a lesbian couple held a traditional Hindu marriage ceremony at the Dakshinkali Temple near Kathmandu in 2011, but the marriage has no legal status in Nepal. [22] In July 2017, a couple, Monica Shahi and Ramesh Nath, successfully registered their marriage in Parshuram in the far-western Dadeldhura District. Shahi is a third gender person, with their sex recorded as "other" (अन्य, pronounced [ˈʌnːe] ) on their official identity documents. LGBT activist Sunil Babu Pant congratulated the married couple, [23] but Home Ministry spokesman Deepak Kafle said the marriage could be invalid. [24]
In 2010, several sources reported that same-sex marriage and protections for sexual minorities would be included in the new constitution being drafted. [25] [26] The Interim Constitution provided for a Constituent Assembly, which was charged with writing a permanent constitution. Under the terms of the Interim Constitution, the new constitution was to be promulgated by November 30, 2011, but a final six month extension was granted just before this deadline bringing the date to May 31, 2012. Negotiations failed and Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai dissolved the Constituent Assembly on 28 May 2012 in preparations for the 2013 elections. [27] The elections were held on 19 November 2013. [28] The vote was repeatedly delayed, having previously been planned for 22 November 2012 following the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly on 27 May 2012, but it was put off by the Election Commission. [29] On 10 February 2014, Sushil Koirala was elected as prime minister with a large majority, breaking the political deadlock and opening the way for the constitution to be finalised. [30]
The Constitution of Nepal, approved in 2015, does not address same-sex marriages. [31] However, Article 18 lists LGBT people among recognized and protected disadvantaged groups as "gender and sexual minorities" (Nepali : लैङ्गिक तथा यौनिक अल्पसङ्ख्यक, laiṅgik tathā yaunika alpasaṅkhyaka, pronounced [ˈlʌi̯ŋɡikˈtʌtʰaˈeu̯nikˈʌlpʌsʌŋkʰek] ). [lower-alpha 1]
On November 17, 2008, the Nepali Supreme Court ruled in favor of laws to guarantee full rights to LGBT people and define gender minorities as "natural persons" under the law, including the right to marry. "This is a landmark decision for sexual minorities and we welcome it," said Sunil Babu Pant, Nepal's first publicly gay lawmaker and a leading gay rights activist in South Asia. [32] The court asked the government to form a committee to study same-sex partnership laws in other countries and mandated that the new law not discriminate against sexual minorities, including transgender people. [33] [34]
On March 22, 2009, Pant said in an interview with the Indo-Asian News Service that "Though the court has approved of same-sex marriage, the government is yet to enact a law," signaling that while a same-sex marriage bill has been ordered by the Supreme Court, it has yet to be drafted or voted on, much less legislated. [35] In June 2009, Pant said the process has just started: "Nepal is going through transition and everything seems to move slowly. The seven-member committee has formed and just started working to study same-sex marriage bills in other countries. Hopefully they will draft the suggestion to make same-sex marriage law soon and give it to the government to approve." [36]
In January 2014, Chaitanya Mishra, a member of the committee formed to study international laws on same-sex marriage, stated that work on the report had been completed, except for a summary to be drafted by the chairman of the committee. The chairman, Laxmi Raj Pathak, promised to submit the report to the Nepali Government within a month, but said that the government was "not interested in the matter". Bhumika Shrestha of the Blue Diamond Society, a Nepalese gay rights group, said he was not ruling out the possibility of another lawsuit with the Supreme Court. [37]
In August 2014, the Associated Press reported that the committee had decided to recommend the legalization of same-sex marriage. [38] The same month, the Minister of Justice, Narahari Acharya, said that his ministry would present a bill to allow same-sex marriages. [39] The committee submitted its report to the government on 9 February 2015, [40] [41] and in January 2016 a government official said that the recommendations of the committee were under consultation. [42] In February 2016, the National Human Rights Commission asked the government to introduce a bill to allow same-sex marriage. [43] Consequently, the Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare created a committee for the purpose of preparing a draft bill on the issue in October 2016. [44] In August 2018, former Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai urged the government to legalise same-sex marriage, [45] and on 1 July 2020 the National Human Rights Commission again called on the government to introduce a same-sex marriage bill. [46] In 2023, Pant criticised the legislative inaction, saying, "The committee was formed, its members even went to Norway to study how same-sex married couples live. In 2015, the committee submitted their report to the government stating that Nepal should implement full marriage equality. Since then, the government and the parliament did nothing." [47]
In 2023, Mitini Nepal, an LGBT advocacy group, filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the definition of marriage in the Nepalese Civil Code. Oral arguments were originally scheduled for 31 May 2023, but were later postponed. [48] On 7 June, Pinky Gurung, president of the Blue Diamond Society, alongside eight other applicants, filed a public interest ligitation seeking the legalisation of same-sex marriage in Nepal.
On 28 June 2023, Supreme Court Justice Til Prasad Shrestha issued an order directing the government to make necessary arrangements to "temporarily register" marriages of "sexual minorities and non-traditional couples". [49] [50] The court directed the government to establish a separate marriage register for same-sex couples until supporting legislation is passed. The judge also gave the government 15 days to provide a written reply, though this was ignored by the government. Both President Ram Chandra Poudel and Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal refrained from making any official comment on the matter. [51] [52] Sunil Babu Pant celebrated the court ruling, "People are already celebrating. They are rushing back to their villages to collect documents for their marriages. Hundreds of LGBT couples will register their marriages very soon." However, some observers argued that Justice Til Prasad Shrestha had exceeded his authority. [53]
On 13 July 2023, the Kathmandu District Court rejected a marriage registration application filed by a Nepali couple, Maya Gurung, 38, and Surendra Pandey, 27, despite the court order. Gurung and Pandey had married in a traditional Hindu ceremony at a temple in Kathmandu in 2017. Pant criticised the rejection as "not only a blow to the sexual minority community but also a disrespect to Til Prasad Shrestha", and vowed to continue appealing to the Supreme Court. [54] [55] According to The Himalayan Times , the district court "exploited the fact that it ha[d] not been named by the Supreme Court as the institution ordered to register non-traditional marriages" to avoid recognizing the marriage of Gurung and Pandey. [47] The couple appealed to the Patan High Court, the high court overseeing appeals from the district courts in Bagmati Province, but the High Court rejected the appeal on 6 October 2023, with the couple vowing to take the case to the Supreme Court again. [9]
In the last week of November 2023, the Ministry of Home Affairs allowed local administration offices to begin registering same-sex marriages. [4] The marriages will be "temporarily registered" and after the passage of an updated marriage law in line with the Supreme Court ruling "will get permanent recognition automatically". [56] On 29 November, Gurung and Pandey successfully registered their marriage in Dordi, Lamjung District. [3] However, marriage license forms were not updated in time for their marriage, which meant that Gurung was labeled as the "wife" and Pandey as the "husband" on the license. [57] "It's a great achievement for us, the third gender community of Nepal. This is the first case not only in Nepal but also in the whole of South Asia, and we welcome the decision.", said Pinky Gurung. [56] Some observers have questioned the government's commitment to ensuring that equal marriage rights will be guaranteed long-term, and have accused the media of pinkwashing and falsely portraying Nepal as "a beacon of LGBT rights". [58] [59] A second couple, Prakash Chaudhary, a transgender man, and Manila Neupane, a transgender woman, were married in the Kailali District on 22 December. [12] On 31 January 2024, Sarita KC, executive director of Mitini Nepal, stated that same-sex couples still "lack the right to marry". [60] The first marriage between two women occurred on 12 February 2024 in the Bardiya District. [13]
The Supreme Court scheduled a full hearing on the petition for 14 March 2024. [6]
In December 2016, Leslie Louise Melnyk, an American citizen who had married her partner Suman Pant, a Nepalese national, in California the year prior, applied for a "Non-Tourist Visa" ("NT Visa") with the Department of Immigration (DOIM) as the dependant of a Nepalese citizen. While the DOIM had initially accepted the request for the visa, it backtracked after media began reporting on the story. [61] The DOIM denied their application on the ground that Nepali law did not recognize same-sex marriage. The couple filed a lawsuit with the Supreme Court in March 2017 requiring the DOIM to issue an NT Visa to Melnyk. The court issued its judgement on 23 October 2017 in Suman Pant v. Ministry of Home Affairs et. al., ruling that under Rule 8(1)(h) of the Immigration Rules a foreign national who submits a valid marriage license with a Nepali citizen is eligible to obtain an NT Visa as a dependant. The Supreme Court further ruled that the Immigration Rules do not specify that a foreign national applying for an NT Visa must either be of the same or opposite gender. It also ruled that Suman Pant, as a member of a "gender and sexual minority", is entitled to the fundamental right to live a life with dignity without discrimination under the Constitution of Nepal. [62] [63]
On 20 March 2023, the Supreme Court issued a ruling ordering the government to recognize the marriage of Nepali national Adhip Pokharel and German national Tobias Volz performed in Germany in 2018 and to issue a spousal visa to Volz. [64] Judges Hari Prasad Phuyal and Tank Bahadur Moktan also directed the government to draft legislation for full marriage equality in Nepal, declaring laws banning same-sex marriage to be unconstitutional and discriminatory. [15] After marrying in Germany in October 2018, the couple moved to Nepal, and attempted to have their marriage recognized by immigration authorities. Volz applied for a spousal visa citing the Supreme Court's ruling in Suman Pant; however, the Department of Immigration rejected his application. Consequently, the couple filed a lawsuit, Adhip Pokharel & Tobias Volz v. Ministry of Home Affairs & Department of Immigration, with the Supreme Court of Nepal to have their marriage recognized. [65] [66]
The Supreme Court held on 20 March that the equality and equal protection clause of the Nepali Constitution guarantees equal rights to sexual and gender minorities, and criticised the Department of Immigration for not abiding by their previous judgement in Suman Pant. The court ordered the department to amend its visa forms to cover same-sex couples, and ordered the government to amend all discriminatory provisions in existing legislation, including marriage and inheritance laws. [67] [68]
In 2012, the Supreme Court recognized the relationship of a lesbian couple in Rajani Shahi v. National Women's Commission. The court allowed Rajani Shahi to live with her partner Prem Kumari Nepali as she wished, rather than with her husband. [69] Shahi had filed for divorce after coming out as a lesbian, but her husband later abducted her and forced her to live with him. [70] The verdict stated: [71] "Individuals can decide as to choosing their ways of living either separately or in partnership together with homosexuals or heterosexuals – with or without solemnizing marriage. Although in the prevailing laws and tradition "marriage" denotes legal bond between heterosexuals (male and female), the legal provisions on the homosexual relations are either inadequate or mute [ sic ] by now." [69]
This is a list of notable events in the history of LGBT rights that took place in the year 2005.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights in Costa Rica have evolved significantly in the past decades. Same-sex sexual relations have been legal since 1971. In January 2018, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights made mandatory the approbation of same-sex marriage, adoption for same-sex couples and the removal of people's sex from all Costa Rican ID cards issued since October 2018. The Costa Rican Government announced that it would apply the rulings in the following months. In August 2018, the Costa Rican Supreme Court ruled against the country's same-sex marriage ban, and gave the Legislative Assembly 18 months to reform the law accordingly, otherwise the ban would be abolished automatically. Same-sex marriage became legal on 26 May 2020.
The legal status of same-sex marriage has changed in recent years in numerous jurisdictions around the world. The current trends and consensus of political authorities and religions throughout the world are summarized in this article.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in Japan have fewer legal protections than in most other developed countries, although some developments towards stronger rights have been made in the 2020s. Same-sex sexual activity was criminalised only briefly in Japan's history between 1872 and 1881, after which a localised version of the Napoleonic Penal Code was adopted with an equal age of consent. Same-sex couples and households headed by same-sex couples are ineligible for the legal protections available to opposite-sex couples, although since 2015 some cities and prefectures offer symbolic "partnership certificates" to recognise the relationships of same-sex couples. Japan is the only country in the G7 that does not legally recognize same-sex unions nationally in any form. In March 2021 and May 2023, the Sapporo and Nagoya District Courts ruled that not recognising same-sex marriage was a violation of the Constitution respectively. While in June 2022, the Osaka District Court ruled that not recognising same-sex marriage was not a violation of the Constitution, in November 2022, the Tokyo District Court ruled that the absence of same-sex marriage legislation was an unconstitutional state of affairs but did not violate the Constitution, though the court's ruling has no immediate legal effect. In June 2023, the Fukuoka District Court ruled that the ban on same-sex marriage was constitutional. A second ruling in September 2023 concluded that same-sex relationships should not be excluded from Japan's marriage system.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights in India have been reformed significantly during the 21st century. Indian LGBT citizens still face social and legal difficulties not experienced by non-LGBT people.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) persons in the British Virgin Islands face legal challenges not experienced by non-LGBT residents. Same-sex sexual activity has been legal in the British Virgin Islands since 2001.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights have evolved significantly in the past decades in the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar. Same-sex sexual activity has been legal since 1993 and the age of consent was equalised to 16 in 2012. The Supreme Court of Gibraltar ruled in April 2013 that same-sex couples have the right to adopt. Civil partnerships have been available to both same-sex and opposite-sex couples since March 2014, and in October 2016, Gibraltar voted to legalise same-sex marriage with the Civil Marriage Amendment Act 2016 passing unanimously in Parliament. The law received royal assent on 1 November and took effect on 15 December 2016.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights in Nepal have evolved significantly during the 21st century, though barriers to full equality still exist within the nation. In 2007, Nepal repealed the laws against gay sex and introduced several laws which explicitly protected "gender and sexual minorities". The Nepalese Constitution now recognizes LGBT rights as fundamental rights. On 28 June 2023, a single judge bench of Justice Til Prasad Shrestha issued a historic interim order directing the government to make necessary arrangements to "temporarily register" the marriages of "non-traditional couples and sexual minorities". The full bench of the Supreme Court has yet to deliver a final verdict. The first queer marriage of a trans woman and a cisgender man occurred in November 2023. Nepal will be the first least developed country and the first in South Asia to legalize same-sex marriage, and the second in Asia after Taiwan.
This is a list of notable events in the history of LGBT rights that took place in the year 2008.
Laws governing lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights are complex in Asia, and acceptance of LGBT persons varies widely. Same-sex sexual activity is outlawed in at least twenty Asian countries. In Afghanistan, Brunei, Iran, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen homosexual activity is punishable by death. In addition, LGBT people also face extrajudicial executions from non-state actors such as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. While egalitarian relationships have become more frequent in recent years, they remain rare.
Sunil Babu Pant is a Nepali human rights activist, monk, and former politician who served as a member of the Nepalese Constituent Assembly between 2008 and 2013. Pant's campaigning for LGBT rights led to the Supreme Court of Nepal giving legal recognition to Nepal's third gender in addition to decriminalising homosexuality and permitting same-sex marriage. In 2021, Pant converted to Buddhism and began training as a monk, going by the name Bhikshu Kashyap.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in Hong Kong may face legal challenges not experienced by non-LGBT residents.
The Blue Diamond Society is an LGBT rights organization in Nepal. It was established in 2001 to advocate for change in the existing laws against homosexuality and to advocate for the rights of Nepal's marginalized gay, transgender, and other sexual minority communities. The Blue Diamond Society also aims to educate Nepalese society on proper sexual health, to advocate with local governments for queer minorities, to encourage the artful expression of LGBTQ+ youth, and to document violence against Nepalese queers. Another of its contributions to Nepal's LGBTQ+ communities is to provide care, counseling, and services to victims of HIV/AIDS. The BDS has also recorded various abuses against the community ranging from physical and verbal abuse and discrimination inflicted in workplaces and healthcare facilities.
Cambodia does not recognize same-sex marriage or civil unions, but does recognize a registry program known as the "declaration of family relationship" offering limited legal rights to same-sex couples. As of June 2021, the registry has been introduced to 68 communes. Same-sex marriage has received support from King Norodom Sihamoni and his late father, King Norodom Sihanouk.
This is a list of notable events in the history of LGBT rights that took place in the year 2015.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in the British Overseas Territory of the Pitcairn Islands enjoy most of the same rights as non-LGBT people. Same-sex sexual activity is legal, discrimination based on sexual orientation is constitutionally outlawed and same-sex marriage has been legal since 14 May 2015.
Debate has occurred throughout Asia over proposals to legalize same-sex marriage as well as civil unions.
Hong Kong does not recognise same-sex marriages or civil unions. However, same-sex couples are afforded limited legal rights as a result of several court decisions, including the right to apply for a spousal visa, spousal benefits for the partners of government employees, and guardianship rights and joint custody of children.
The recognition of same-sex unions varies by country.
This is a list of notable events in the history of LGBT rights taking place in the year 2023.