English - Support to Participatory Constitution Building in Nepal ...

English “Multi-national” is commonly used
in the business sector, for example a multinational
company is one that operates
throughout the world. There is a provision
in the constitution to nominate the vice
president from a different nationality than
the President. Thus in the Nepali context
“national” refers to ethnicity. Literally Dalit
means daliyeko in Nepali. In India, cobblers
have been named Harijan and they write it
as their last name. The word Dalit has been
established as an identity within the Dalit
community and it has been also accepted
politically and socially. However, their
issues relate to social justice rather than
identification.
Q. How is the right to
self determination
ensured for indigenous
populations? -Pan
Bahadur Gharti
A. Regarding the right
to self determination,
the indigenous NGO
Federation and other
indigenous
people
involved in different political parties have
different opinions. Therefore it is necessary
to ensure that the constitution represents
our sentiment.
Q. In the context of Nepal, what type of
right to self-determination would be
appropriate? -Tika Gauchan
A. There are two thoughts about the right
to self-determination. Lenin recognized that
the right to self-determination is the right
to secede and compares it with the right to
divorce. Though there is the right to divorce,
it is not used by all. The United Nations
declaration and ILO 169 regard the individual
and collective right to self-determination
as the fundamental right of indigenous
people and also ensures that indigenous
people will be informed in advance of any
activities being carried out which will affect
them. However, in the context of Madhesh,
the right to self determination is linked with
Madhesh Province.
Since the old mechanism
did not address the issue of
disadvantage, this change
in (Federal) structure has to
be accepted.
- Yam Bahadur Gurung
Ethiopia has guaranteed the right to selfdetermination
as the right to secede, but
with the provision to conduct a referendum
three years after a bill of secession is brought
in the parliament. This is to provide sufficient
time for the people to have second thoughts
about secession.
Other questions related
with minorities and their
rights are included later in
this report.
Presentation on Fiscal
Federalism:
Prof Krishna Hachhethu
explained that the proposed federal financial
system has a provision of centralized
revenue collection. The draft constitution has
projected 88% revenue (including foreing
aid) concentrated in the center and and only
12% to the 14 proposed provinces. This is
similar to the practice of the Australian federal
system. However, following the principle of
equalization, the center has the responsibility
to support the less developed provinces by
collecting revenue from more developed
provinces and redistributing it. He stressed
that in the federal system, one province
can be more developed than another but
18 Federalism Dialogues Series 5