Law Minister Addresses UN Session

Minister for Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Narendra Bikram Newang addressed the 65th session of the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, according to a press release issued by the New-York based permanent mission of Nepal on Tuesday.

Addressing the session, the law minister informed the international community that Nepal has undertaken a significant transformation to a multiparty democratic polity and the rule of law, particularly since last April following the successful people's movement.

Minister Newang, who is also one of the members of the Nepali delegation, made this statement while participating in the deliberations on issues relating to implementation of the outcome of the World Summit for Social Development and of the 24th special session of the General Assembly, social development including questions relating to the world social situation and to youth, aging, disabled persons and the family are follow-up to the International Year of Older Persons, Second World Assembly for Ageing.

He expressed sincere gratitude to the international community, including the United Nations for their support and assistance for the restoration of democracy and economic and social development in Nepal. He told the assembly that Nepal's national development plan focused on overall improvement of the well-being of people living in rural and remote areas. Growing population, prevalence of poverty, lack of adequate development infrastructure and primitive stage of industrial development are daunting challenges for Nepal's development efforts, he added.

On the occasion, Newang reiterated Nepal's commitment to successful conclusion of the peace process with a view to resolving all the issues through dialogue and peaceful negotiations and holding free and fair election to a Constituent Assembly as early as possible. He added that the government would be implementing development policies and programs by delivering basic services, enhancing the quality of life of the poor people and promoting economic and social inclusion of deprived communities and regions including various ethnic groups.

Minister Newang further added that Nepal has adopted the policy of decentralizing power and responsibility to local authorities in order to enable them to participate in formulation, implementation and monitoring processes of the development programs.

He said Nepal is committed to increasing women's representation from local bodies right up to the Parliament to allow them to participate in decision-making processes at all levels.

He appreciated the work of the Commission on Social Development on the follow-up to the World Summit on Social Development (WSSD) and the Copenhagen Declaration and said that integration of economic and social policies should focus on the main objective of poverty eradication.He called for greater access to markets in the developed countries for the least developed countries' products, which would help achieve their sustained economic growth and mitigate negative social consequences of globalization. He also called for coherent and concerted approach of the international community towards social development.

He emphasized the full implementation of the World's Programme of Action concerning Disabled Persons and noted with satisfaction that the ad hoc committee on International Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities has finalized a draft convention that would help in mainstreaming the disability into development policy and development activities.

He underlined the need for the implementation of the Political Declaration and Madrid Plan of Action on Ageing taking into account the gender dimension as well.

He further stated that Nepal is fully committed to implementing all the internationally agreed development goals, including the Millennium Development Goals and the Brussels Program of Action for the Least Developed Countries for 2001-2010.

He also urged the international community to make greater effort towards accelerating its support with financial and technical assistance to least developed countries.