An anti-conversion clause inserted in Nepal’s new constitution has some worried that persecution of religious minorities will increase, it was reported in mid-September.
The new constitution declares Nepal a secular state. However, section 26 makes illegal ‘any act to convert another person from one religion to another or any act or behaviour to undermine or jeopardise the religion of another’.
In 2008 when Nepal’s Constituent Assembly (CA) declared the country a secular state, it had been the world’s only official Hindu state.
Despite its new declarations of religious neutrality, bomb attacks in September in the Terai region are thought to be perpetrated by Hindu extremists. The suspected attackers were never prosecuted. Christians are a minority in Nepal, making up only 1.4 percent of the country’s population.
‘While the decision of the CA to maintain state neutrality towards all religions is welcomed, it is vital that the anti-conversion clauses in the new constitution do not lead to the persecution of members of minority religions who wish to explain and discuss their beliefs with people of other faiths’, CSW’s special ambassador Stuart Windsor said.
