The president is head of state and elected to up to two five-year terms by a parliamentary electoral college and state assemblies. The prime minister is elected by the parliament. The legitimacy of executive officeholders is largely determined by the conduct of legislative and provincial elections.

Then prime minister Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli dissolved the parliament twice in December 2020 and May 2021, prompting a constitutional crisis that was resolved when the Supreme Court reinstated the parliament and ordered the installation of Sher Bahadur Deuba in July 2021. The November 2022 elections resulted in Pushpa Kamal Dahal, alias Prachanda, the leader of the Communist Party of Nepal–Maoist Center (CPN-MC), becoming prime minister. Dahal headed a coalition that included the CPN-UML and the new Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP).

There has been no significant threat to the executive’s ability to function since the 2020–21 crisis. In February 2023, the CPN-UML withdrew its support for Dahal’s government, prompting Dahal to form a new coalition with the Deuba-led Nepali Congress Party (NCP). Dahal remained in office at year’s end.

President Ramchandra Paudel was elected in March 2023. Paudel won with the support of eight political parties and 33,802 electoral college votes. Dahal had supported Paudel, the NCP’s candidate, over the CPN-UML’s candidate, prompting the latter party’s withdrawal from the ruling coalition.”

Score Change: The score improved from 3 to 4 because past impediments to the executive’s ability to function have not persisted.

Members of the 275-seat House of Representatives are elected to five-year terms; 165 are directly elected, while 110 are elected by proportional representation. The National Assembly has 59 members; 56 are indirectly elected to six-year terms by an electoral college comprised of provincial and local leaders, while the president appoints 3 following the government’s recommendation.

Elections were successfully held in November 2022 to replace both the national legislature and provincial assemblies.

The legal framework for elections is sound and facilitates the conduct of credible polls. Though the parliament has not addressed grievances regarding province demarcation and proportional representation, current institutions and provincial boundaries have stabilized, and most stakeholders accepted them ahead of the 2022 election cycle. Nepal’s Election Commission generally conducts fair and credible contests.

Political parties are generally free to form and operate. In the past opposition figures have faced arrest, though recent incidents are rare.

Since the 2021 constitutional crisis, party politics have remained relatively stable. Nepal has recently experienced party mergers, party splits, and the formation of new parties, including that of the RSP.

Political parties have a realistic chance of gaining power through elections and through the formation of coalitions. In the past, smaller opposition parties had difficulty gaining power at the national level, partly due to a 3 percent threshold for proportional representation in the House of Representatives. However, the newly created RSP secured legislative seats in the November 2022 election and became part of a ruling coalition.

In the past, Nepalis’ political choices have been limited by sporadic outbursts of political violence and crackdowns on political demonstrations by security agents. However, political violence has declined in recent years, and the number of peaceful protests has risen. Vote buying has been reported in past elections, but there was little evidence of this behavior in recent polls. Isolated incidents of violence were reported during the national and provincial elections in November 2022, but were neither organized nor large-scale.

Though the constitution has requirements for women and minority participation in the legislature, social discrimination continues to hinder their political involvement. Women comprise 33.1 percent of the House of Representatives as of November 2022, though few hold senior political positions. Only 9.3 percent of candidates contesting directly elected seats in the Federal Parliament during the 2022 elections were women, and only eight women won directly elected seats.

A limited definition of citizenship had disenfranchised stateless people. However, access to citizenship improved when President Paudel gave assent to amendments to the Citizenship Act in May 2023. The amendments allow the children of Nepali citizens, who themselves received that status at birth, to receive their own citizenship by descent. Some of those covered by the amendments had been effectively stateless. Additionally, foreign women married to Nepali spouses could gain citizenship, though they cannot maintain dual citizenship. The Supreme Court allowed implementation to proceed in a June decision.

The country’s first openly gay legislator, Sunil Babu Pant, served in the Constituent Assembly, which drafted the 2015 constitution, between 2008 and 2012.

Indigenous Nepalis and Dalits are underrepresented in politics and in civil service, despite policies meant to bolster their participation. Members of the Chhettri and Hill Brahmin groups, meanwhile, remain relatively overrepresented.

Nepal ratified a new constitution in 2015, an important step in its democratic transition. Several successful elections have been held since.

Corruption is endemic in Nepal. Corruption by officials has obstructed the delivery of foreign aid in the past, though COVID-19-related aid suffered somewhat less interference on the part of corrupt actors. The top Nepali anticorruption agency, the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA), has been significantly more active in recent years and has taken on a variety of cases.

In May 2023, former home secretary Tek Narayan Pandey and former energy minister Tope Bahadur Rayamajhi were charged in connection with a corruption investigation along with 28 other people. The alleged activity revolved around a scheme in which Nepalis entered the United States using false documents. In early October, the CIAA filed corruption charges against Industry Ministry secretary Madhu Kumar Marasini and six others over a case involving the National Payment Gateway, a system meant to make government transactions easier to execute. In late October, the CIAA seized documents as part of its investigation into a newly opened airport in Pokhara—which was funded and constructed by Chinese state-owned companies—due to alleged financial irregularities, poor construction, and the absence of government oversight.

Score Change: The score improved from 1 to 2 due to the government’s increased enforcement of anticorruption mechanisms, including by bringing corruption-related charges against former and sitting officials.

The government generally operates opaquely. Mechanisms for utilizing the 2007 Right to Information Act are poorly defined, and the law remains inconsistently enforced.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) and the Commission of Investigation on Enforced Disappeared Persons (CIEDP) have been criticized for their lack of transparency, as have other bodies. In June 2023, a UN special rapporteur criticized legislative amendments that would allow amnesty for some human rights abuses. The rapporteur noted that the government did not “include some of the views of victims and civil society” who had commented on a similar amendment.

The 2015 constitution guarantees freedom of expression and prohibits prior restraints on press freedom. These rules can be suspended in a national emergency or for national security, however. Journalists face threats and harassment from criminal groups and the police.

The 2015 constitution identifies Nepal as secular, signaling a break with the Hindu monarchy that was formally abolished in 2008. Religious freedom is constitutionally protected and tolerance is broadly practiced, though some religious minorities occasionally report harassment. Proselytizing is prohibited by a 2017 law, and some Christians have been prosecuted.

The government does not restrict academic freedom and scholarly activity on political topics takes place freely. Authorities exercise some control over the primary education curriculum, but relatively little over universities. Ethnic minorities, including Hindi- and Urdu-speaking Madhesi groups, have complained that Nepali is enforced as the language of education in government schools.

While free speech related to sensitive topics has expanded with Nepal’s political stabilization, authorities occasionally crack down on individuals who criticize the government on social media. Local observers criticized a cybersecurity policy endorsed by the cabinet in August 2023, saying that the strategy’s provisions may give the government more control over internet users’ data.

Although the constitution guarantees freedom of assembly, security forces have violently dispersed protests and demonstrations in the past, particularly in the south, where a large Madhesi population and related secessionist movement exist.

Authorities did use force to disperse protests during 2023, though they were not as violent as in the past. In November, supporters of the CPN-UML and businessman Durga Prasai, a former party member who called for the restoration of the monarchy, held rival demonstrations in Kathmandu. Prasai called on his supporters to march into a restricted section of the city, with security forces then deploying tear gas, water cannon, and rubber bullets to disperse protesters. However, politicians and ordinary citizens generally reported that the police exercised restraint.

Score Change: The score improved from 3 to 4 because interruptions of peaceful public gatherings and protests have become less common in recent years.

Although the constitution allows nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to form and operate in Nepal, legal restrictions sometimes make this difficult in practice. Government offices responsible for registering NGOs are often understaffed. Foreign NGOs must enter project-specific agreements with the Nepali government. There is a widespread view that NGOs should not be overly political, which hinders some groups from engaging in certain forms of public advocacy. There is a robust NGO presence, particularly in Kathmandu.

The 2015 constitution protects trade unions. Labor laws protect collective bargaining and unions generally operate without state interference. Workers in a broad range of “essential” industries cannot stage strikes. Labor unions are not powerful, and the existence of a large informal sector undercuts their effectiveness.

Although the 2015 constitution provides for an independent judiciary, it is compromised by endemic corruption in many courts.

The state sometimes ignores local court verdicts, Supreme Court decisions, and National Human Rights Commission recommendations. However, the Supreme Court effectively checked the executive when it reinstated the parliament in 2020 and 2021.

Constitutional due process guarantees are poorly upheld in practice. Arbitrary arrests occur but are declining. Heavy case backlogs and slow appeals processes result in long pretrial detentions. The government provides legal counsel to those who cannot afford their own, but only at a defendant’s request. Those unaware of this right often represent themselves.

Rights advocates continue to criticize Nepal for failing to punish abuses and war crimes committed during the 1996–2006 civil war.

Neither the TRC nor the CIEDP have implemented reforms demanded by the United Nations and the Supreme Court. Although thousands of reports of human rights violations and enforced disappearances have been provided, no alleged perpetrators have been prosecuted. Amendments to the law establishing the TRC, which would allow amnesty for some human rights offenses, were sent to the parliament for consideration in March 2023. In a June letter to the government, the UN special rapporteur noted that the bill struck the mention of crimes against humanity as a serious human rights violation from the original law. The amendments remained under consideration at year’s end.

The 2015 constitution includes rights for sexual minorities. The first passport on which the holder was permitted to select a third gender was issued in 2015. In June 2023, the Supreme Court issued a ruling allowing same-sex couples to register marriages, with the first such union being registered in November. However, LGBT+ people still face harassment by authorities and other citizens, particularly in rural areas.

The constitution only protects the fundamental human rights of Nepali citizens. This potentially leaves the rights of noncitizens, including migrants, unprotected. Tibetans in Nepal sometimes face difficulty achieving formal refugee status due to Chinese pressure. The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported that 12,540 Tibetans identified as people of concern resided in Nepal as of March 2023. The UNHCR maintains a notable presence in Nepal and coordinates with the government to support refugees residing there.

Access to citizenship was broadened by President Paudel’s May 2023 assent of the amended Citizenship Act, allowing children to gain citizenship by descent and allowing foreign wives of Nepali spouses to gain citizenship.

Women often do not receive the same educational and employment opportunities as men. The female labor-force participation rate was 28.7 percent in 2023 according to the World Bank. In February, the government, the European Union, and the United Nations launched a four-year joint program to address gender inequality.

Muslims enjoy greater freedom to practice their religion under the 2015 constitution but continue to face discrimination.

Children living with disabilities are sometimes excluded from the education system or face classroom segregation.

Score Change: The score improved from 1 to 2 because antidiscrimination measures were expanded during the year, including by a Supreme Court ruling that effectively legalized same-sex marriage.

Freedom of movement is generally respected in Nepal. There are legal limits on refugees’ freedom of movement, but they are rarely enforced. Citizens generally enjoy choice of residence, though bribery is common in the housing market as well as in university admittance processes.

In rural areas, some women remain subject to chhaupadi, a traditional practice in which menstruating women are physically separated from their families and communities. Chhaupadi was criminalized in 2018 and arrests have occurred inconsistently since then.

Although citizens have the right to own private businesses, starting one in Nepal often requires bribes to various officials. Women face widespread discrimination when starting businesses. Customs and border police are notoriously corrupt in dealing with cross-border trade. Foreigners generally cannot own land, though in practice individuals and organizations have evaded this law with long-term leases from Nepalis. In 2022, the Finance Ministry stated that foreigners would soon be able to buy apartments in buildings that have at least 100 units, but this has not been implemented.

Gender-based violence persists. The 2009 Domestic Violence Act provides for monetary compensation and psychological treatment for victims, but authorities rarely prosecute domestic violence cases, which tend to be handled informally.

To combat child marriage, which is more common in rural areas, one rural municipality declared in February 2023 that residents must receive a recommendation from a ward office to marry. Legal observers criticized the move, saying it was unconstitutional and violated the rights of adult couples.

Acquisition of Nepali citizenship has differed by gender, though the Citizenship Act amendments approved in May 2023 allow foreign-born wives of Nepali spouses to gain citizenship.

Trafficking of children and women for prostitution in India remains a problem with rare intervention. In the 2023 edition of its Trafficking in Persons Report, the US State Department noted that some forms of labor and sex trafficking were not criminalized. Bonded labor is illegal but persists in many places. Most workers in Nepal remain in the informal sector and lack legal protections. Most women in Nepal are not paid for their work.

Child labor remains a problem; children can be found in brickmaking, service, and other industries, along with forced begging and sex work.