OneWorld.net (U.S.)

June 19, 2006, Kathmandu: More than two dozen women activists were detained for three hours Sunday after they staged a sit-in protest in front of the Singha Durbar, the country’s main government offices (above). The women are demanding one-third representation in the interim government. They defied a restricted area and blocked a three-way intersection. The protest follows a decision Friday by the government and the Maoists that established an all male five-member committee to draft a new interim constitution. In May the government of Nepal had said that it would reserve 33 percent of all seats in government agencies and institutions for women. There are only two women on the newly-formed 31-member Ceasefire and Code of Conduct National Monitoring Committee and only one woman in the prime minister’s 20-member cabinet.