October 2, 2021
Indigenous Peoples of Nepal are advocating for securing autonomy and self-rule for their socio-economic and cultural development on their ancestral lands.
The Indigenous Peoples such as Majhi, Magar, Newa, Limbu, Tharu and Shanthal in particular are making demands with the local governments to take steps to establish autonomous regions, cultural protected areas and the legal recognition of customary institutions to promote their self-governance and self-determined development.
On October 2, 2021, an interaction program was organized by LAHURNIP in Kathmandu on legal and constitutional provisions to promote Indigenous autonomy and self-determination where Indigenous leaders and activists seeking autonomy and protected areas participated in the interaction.
In the interaction, the Indigenous rights activities shared the successful stories of the community advocacy on securing cultural protected areas and legal recognition of the customary institutions to promote Indigenous self-governance.
In July 2021, Kritipur Municipality of Kathmandu district brought new law defining certain areas of the municipality as cultural protected areas that gives full autonomy to customary institutions of Newa Peoples to govern the protected area. Similarly, in January 2021, Barbardiya Municipality of Bardiya district has legislated a law recognizing Badhar system- the customary institution of Tharu Indigenous Peoples.
The interaction has concluded to form a coordination committee to advance the advocacy initiatives for autonomy as the Article 56 (5) of the constitution and section 99 of the Local Government Operation Act 2017 has provisioned Special, Protected and Autonomous Region for socio-economic and cultural development of Indigenous Peoples.
