ARTICLE 19 and Media Action Nepal (MAN) welcome the opportunity to input into Nepal’s fourth Universal Periodic Review (UPR). Our submission focuses on media freedom and the safety of journalists, with a focus on how discrimination on the basis of gender and other intersecting identities impacts the right to freedom of expression. Our proposed recommendations call for an intersectional gender approach to the safety of journalists and media freedom, and for Nepal to bring legislation in line with international human rights standards.
The Universal Periodic Review is a United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) mechanism through which the human rights record and commitments of every United Nations (UN) Member State are peer-reviewed by all other Member States. ARTICLE 19 and Media Action Nepal prepared a joint submission that analyses Nepal’s progress on implementing recommendations related to the right to freedom of expression, media freedom, and the safety of journalists in the previous cycle, and highlights further urgent gaps in law and policy. The submission is based on legal analysis combined with consultations with women journalists and women leaders of civil society organisations (CSOs).
Key legislative challenges to freedom of expression in Nepal include the Electronic Transactions Act (ETA) and the proposed Social Media Bill. Through its vague and overbroad provisions, the ETA permits the criminalisation of expression and allows for disproportionate punishment of speech-related offences. This Act has been used to arbitrarily arrest and detain or otherwise penalise journalists who criticise the government, powerful individuals, or institutions, and directly contravenes the right to freedom of expression as protected by Nepal’s constitution and international human rights law.
Consultations with women journalists and CSO leaders focused mainly on the media freedom landscape and the physical, economic, and social risks that women journalists face when doing their work. Discussants highlighted that though civil society efforts have increased the visibility of the risks faced by journalists, systemic protections, including protections that account for gendered violence – such as investigations into attacks, emergency safety protocols, and judicial redress – remain largely absent. Harassment of women journalists is a pervasive concern, both within and outside the newsroom, with workplace hostility leading to 29 women reporting leaving the profession between 2023 and 2024.
The UPR submission calls for gender-responsive, intersectional reforms to uphold Nepal’s constitutional and international obligations leading into the fourth UPR. It also brings considerations around caste, digital security, and labour protections to the forefront, dimensions largely overlooked in previous cycles.
Key recommendations include:
- Repeal the Electronic Transactions Act, which restricts protected expression and has been used to arbitrarily arrest and detain or otherwise penalise journalists and those who criticise the government, powerful individuals, and institutions.
- Withdraw the Proposed Social Media Bill, which would grant government authorities sweeping powers to arbitrarily remove content and surveil users of online platforms on vague grounds, without judicial oversight or appeals mechanisms.
- Bring all media-related laws in line with Articles 17, 19, and 27 of Nepal’s Constitution and Articles 19 and 26 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).
- Conduct impartial, prompt, thorough, independent, and effective investigations into all alleged cases of violence, threats, and attacks against journalists, and ensure that investigations take gendered threats and violence into account and make positive efforts to address the under-reporting of threats and violence that primarily impact women, especially those facing multiple and intersecting forms of oppression.
- Implement mandatory training and awareness-raising for law enforcement personnel regarding States’ obligations under international human rights law and States’ commitments relating to the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, media freedom, and the safety of journalists, as well as how these obligations come hand in hand with non-discrimination and gender equality obligations in the justice system.
- Strengthen and operationalise the existing mechanism to safeguard journalists within the National Human Rights Commission, ensuring it is adequately resourced and has clear procedures to provide timely protection, especially for women journalists and journalists facing multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination.
- Ensure the functional independence of media regulation bodies, such as the Press Council Nepal, to ensure that regulators can apply transparent, non-discriminatory rules; prevent censorship; and promote media pluralism with legal separation from government and industry influence.
- Adopt comprehensive and gender equality and non-discrimination-based public policy measures that protect women and journalists that face multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination from offline and online violence, including threats, harassment and abuse, doxing, and threats of sexual and other violence.
- Ensure maternity protections, anti-harassment policies, and equal pay for women journalists and those who face multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination, and take positive steps to promote leadership opportunities and end exclusionary practices in newsrooms.