Nepal

Nepal received a fair score for the Justice pillar, but scored poorly on the Transparency and Participation pillars. While Nepalese citizens have a right to access environmental information, the government is not obliged to proactively make environmental quality and health information proactively available to the public. As for the Participation pillar, the environmental laws provide a few opportunities for the public to give input on environmental decisions, but the government is not required to proactively seek or take due account of public input. With respect to the Justice pillar, the law establishes appeal procedures when environmental information requests are denied; however, there are limited legal means of challenging government or private sector decisions. There are also no financial or gender-related assistance mechanisms in place to address barriers to accessing justice. By addressing these issues, Nepal could ensure environmental information is proactively disseminated to the public, the government incorporates public input into environmental decisions, and women and the poor can obtain redress when their environmental rights are violated.

Visit the Environmental Democracy Index to explore the EDI score.