Sexual orientation and gender identity in Nepal: Rights promotion through UN development assistance

ABSTRACT

United Nations (UN) development agencies have been actively working to protect lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) rights in Nepal, despite having no official mandate to work on these rights. This presents an important example of how such agencies are able to act independently to set their own agenda and illustrates the “open system” approach to international bureaucracies. It also suggests that these agencies have the potential to be important instruments of LGBTI rights promotion outside the traditional human rights machinery such as the Human Rights Council and various committees. Based on extensive interview research as well as documentary evidence, this article traces the origins of the UN's engagement with LGBTI rights. It then discusses the work of UN agencies in South Asia, and Nepal in particular, focusing on the UN Development Programme, the UN Children's Fund, UNAIDS, and UN Women. Political changes in Nepal since 2006 have opened it up for change in its approach to these rights, and UN agencies have worked actively to change both legal norms and social attitudes. The conclusion considers whether these lessons are applicable to other states and whether the UN development machinery must be considered an important ally in pursuing LGBTI rights worldwide.

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Notes on contributor

Joel E. Oestreich is Professor of Politics and Global Studies at Drexel University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He is the author of Development and Human Rights: Rhetoric and Reality in India, published in 2017 by Oxford University Press.

Notes

1. I am using the term Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI) here, rather than the more common Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Intersex (LGBTI) as I find it clearer and more inclusive. When referring to overall rights policies I prefer SOGI; LGBTI is used to refer to specific groups who identify with that term. With regard to Nepal, the UN usually uses the term “LGBTI” rather than LGBT, adding the category “intersex.” It usually does not include “queer” (“Q”).