Nepal Supreme Court pushes for gay marriage
"Nepal has a global reputation as a leader on LGBT rights, and the government needs to live up to it," says the Human Rights Watch.
Nepal’s Supreme Court has recommended that the country’s government recognise gay marriage.
It has done so after once again ordering the government to recognise a same-sex foreign spouse of a Nepali citizen.
The case – Adheep Pokhrel and Tobias Volz. v. Ministry of Home Affairs, Department of Immigration – was brought by a gay couple, Pokhrel, and his German partner, Volz.
The couple married in Germany in 2018 and applied for a non-tourist visa for Volz in 2022. While Nepal doesn’t recognise same-sex marriage, it does recognise same-sex marriages involving a Nepali citizen and a foreign national.
The couple’s request was denied on the grounds that the application form reads ‘husband’ and ‘wife’. Citing a previous and almost identical case from 2017 the couple applied again in August but was still denied.
The court ordered the government to grant the visa in the 2017 case.
“Given this background, it appears that same-sex marriage should be considered a subject that is envisioned by the constitution and in accordance with the Constitution of Nepal,” the Supreme Court wrote in regard to the Pokhrel/Volz case.
The court has also instructed the government to urgently consider a 2015 court-ordered report that recommended broader recognition of same-sex relationships.
Kyle Knight, a senior LGBT rights researcher at Human Rights Watch said: “The Supreme Court has again drawn attention to the government’s lagging implementation of court orders to recognize same-sex relationships.”
He added: “Nepal has a global reputation as a leader on LGBT rights, and the government needs to live up to it with a tangible policy change.”
Knight also urged the Nepal government to “urgently examine” the 2015 report.