WHR at National, South Asian Regional and International Levels:

1. WHR at the National Level
   

   WHR has confronted injustices towards widows head-on, at the policy level and at grass-root level. WHR highlighted the issue of single women in the 10th five-year plan of the country. Government of Nepal, for the first time, has allocated budget for the empowerment of single women in 15 districts of Nepal. Similarly with the significant and continuous advocacy and contribution of WHR, government has addressed and made constitutional provision (under the directive principle of Interim Constitution 2007) of single women (widows) issues in the interim constitution and interim plan for three years too. WHR has succeeded in changing some discriminatory laws against single women (widow), such as:

   • Property of deceased husband does not need to be returned after remarriage.
   • There is also no need to reach the age of 35 to inherit deceased husband's property.
   • No male consent required while acquiring a passport and citizenship.
   • Women no longer require the consent of their adult sons and unmarried daughters to sell or hand over property ownership.
   
   

   WHR currently has 225 single women groups in 52 districts with a membership base of over 44,000. WHR has a unique contribution to re-conciliation at grassroots level. The movement of WHR has brought a very good impact in the life of single women (widows) who are most-affected by the violence and conflict. WHR has proven capacity to manage projects and movements even during emergency, insurgency and high conflict period working closely with and taking help of both Maoist combatant and military officials. WHR has been addressing issues on mainstreaming single women (widows) in development and peace building process through enhancing capacity of single women themselves to be agents for change. The District Groups formed by WHR have been able to work as pressure groups to bring about positive changes locally.

2. WHR at South Asian Regional Level
   

   There has been a dramatic increase in the number of widows in South Asia, Africa and the Middle East over the last decade. This unprecedented rise in numbers has been caused by the proliferation of armed conflict, ethnic cleansing, the scourge of AIDS and the persistence in some regions of harmful traditional practices. In conflict affected countries, it is estimated that half of all women may be widows.

   SANWED stands for South Asian Network for Widows' Empowerment in Development. SANWED, launched in February 2006, is a new initiative in the South Asian region to uphold widows' human rights in all aspects of their lives; reduce poverty and marginalization and eliminate all forms of socio-cultural, religious, legal, political and economic discrimination. The establishment of SANWED in South Asia will encourage consortiums of widows' groups to be set up in the other regions of the world where widows face similar problems. Women for Human Rights (WHR) is the Secretariat for SANWED.

   With the initiative of WHR, for the first time single women’s (widows’) issues have been incorporated in SAARC Summit Colombo Declaration.

3. WHR at the International Level
   

   WHR played an important role in highlighting the plight of single women (widows) of Nepal to CEDAW and UN Commission of Status of Women. WHR is also leading this movement not only in Nepal but in South Asian region too as Secretariat for South Asian Network for Widows Empowerment in Development (SANWED). WHR has also organized International Conference on Capacity Building of Single Women and drafted Widows Charter based on UN Human Rights Instruments like UNSCR-1325, Convention of the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against women (CEDAW), Beijing Platform for Women in Action (BPWA).

   WHR has been able to organize single women at grass root level and bring changes at policy level and has also become a role model to other countries as well; for example Afghanistan and Sri Lanka have already adopted the best practices of WHR in their countries. Sri Lanka has adopted to work for widows of Tsunami victims. WHR has been approached by the UN women national commission to share its program strategy to help the single women (widows) of Iraq, by implementing similar concept and activities to the target groups there. Ms Lily Thapa, the chairperson of WHR has presented papers on challenges on implementing UNSCR-1325 in Nepal and the status of women in Nepal in Wilton Park Conference on UNSCR-1325.

   In order to address the issues of the rights of the single women (widows) at a global level, WHR has also been taking initiative of establishing WHR International Chapter in different countries. Women for Human Rights, Single Women Group International Chapter Australia has already been registered in 17 April, 2009. WHR International - Australia Chapter is an additional initial step towards setting up the platform for the resource management and social empowerment of single women (widows). (For more information, please visit http://www.whraustralia.org.au)