Peace has been identified as one of the five cross-cutting themes of vital importance for humanity in the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 16 in particular, promotes peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, access to justice for all, and effective, accountable, and inclusive institutions. While this is central to focusing attention of government leadership and global stakeholders, the sustainability of peace and prevention of conflict and violence requires leveraging targets under other SDGs as well. To do so, accurate and complete data on different forms of violence and conflict in society remains a critical component. Access to such information provides a mechanism by which to measure progress, maintain accountability, and develop sustainable solutions.

The Nepal Peace Monitor: Annual Review 2017 presents data collected by the Nepal Peace Monitoring Project (PMP), an initiative by COCAP|Nepalmonitor.org. It provides a comprehensive overview of incidents documented throughout 2017 and analyzes major trends with the objective of improving our understanding of and response to violence and conflict in Nepal. 

Summary:

In 2017, Nepal made significant progress towards implementing the new constitution, which included the federal restructuring of the state and conducting three tiers of elections. Trends of incidents this year were characterized by the peaks of violence surrounding the various stages of elections, as the largest share of incidents were related to politics. Apart from political and electoral incidents, gender-based violence (GBV) and personal disputes constituted large shares of violence documented. Sexual assault and domestic violence remained at elevated levels throughout 2017. Political violence resulted in a high number of incidents and increased number of injuries, but disputes of a personal nature and GBV, remained the leading cause for violent deaths. There were no incidents of armed conflict or international terrorism in Nepal, and violence due to crimes such as robbery, drug trafficking, or arms smuggling, was low. This points to positive progress made in the country since the years of internal conflict in Nepal.