Full Coverage: Nepal

31.05.2005 The United Nations System in Nepal, in support with its 17 implementing partners, is all set to implement its GFATM-funded-projects (Global Fund for AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria) in six districts of Nepal.

30.05.2005 More than 250 scribes, mainly radio journlists, went on to streets to protest against the royal crackdown of a community radio programme production centre.

26.05.2005 Demanding immediate withdrawal of the ban on news and informative programmes broadcast, Radio Journalists in Nepal have announced protest programmes. The government banned news broadcasts on FM radio after the royal coup took place in February this year.

25.05.2005 KATHMANDU, May 24 (IPS) - It isn't easy working for Nepal's civil society these days. Groups pushing for the return of constitutional democracy after the Feb. 1 royal takeover are being harassed by state security forces, while rural development workers are squeezed between the army and Maoists as they battle for supremacy of the hinterlands.

24.05.2005 The Nepal Press Council has sought written explanation from Nepalese media organisation - Kantipur Publications - regarding a published news item in Kantipur Daily and The Kathmandu Post on May 21 that claimed the government has prepared a strict law to tighten its grip over the media.

23.05.2005 Four development organizations in Nepal suspended activities last week after aid workers were brutally beaten by Maoist insurgents in the country's impoverished western province. In the capital, Kathmandu, the king's seizure of power has meant a narrowing space for journalists, academics, and NGOs to work.

17.05.2005 The recent announcement by the UN Commission on Human Rights to appoint two special rapporteurs to tackle the deep-rooted problem of caste-based discrimination is a shot in the arm for activists fighting for the rights of the Dalits, the oppressed classes, in India. The two rapporteurs, who have been given the title of Special Rapporteurs, will undertake a three-year study and will draft a set of principles and guidelines to eliminate this form of discrimination. Rahul Kumar speaks to Dalit organisations in New Delhi.

16.05.2005 As Chairman of the National Assembly Ram Preet Paswan inaugurated the women's division of Environmental Cycle Radio (ECR) FM 104.Mhz, radio programmes specilly tagetted at the Nepalese women living in rural areas will become available.

13.05.2005 Progress towards the Millennium Development Goals for maternal and child mortality has faltered. Most neonatal deaths happen at home and are avoidable. But healthcare systems have trouble reaching poor rural residents. In rural Nepal, participatory womenÂ’s groups are reducing neonatal mortality by 30 percent.

04.05.2005 The controversial King of Nepal has lifted the state of emergency which has been in force since February. Nobody really understands what this may mean, not least because media restrictions remain as tight as ever.

04.05.2005 NepalÂ’s King Gyanendra has lifted the state of emergency he put in place since February 1, when he took control of all political institutions in what many are calling a coup. Although a few political prisoners have been released, over 800 remain in jail, and the ban on political activities and restrictions on the media continue, report civil society groups inside the country.

02.05.2005 As the U.S. re-considers the military aid it provides to tiny, yet strategic, Nepal amid a new climate of violence and intimidation, a representative of Nepalese civil society is touring the U.S., describing a country at war, with little respect left for human rights.