we engage with high school children from grade up, to make them aware about the importance of birth
registration and through them to their parents and family members. The underlying effect of the outreach
has also been that students who are themselves going through difficulties acquiring birth registration or
citizenship certificate reach out to CAPN for assistance or counseling. This naturally leads CAPN to
providing individual case support.
CAPN’s community-driven social awareness campaigns counter myths and promote rights-based
discourse, while its Safe Haven initiative empowers individuals with skills and opportunities to mitigate
barriers from statelessness. Advocacy tactics include strategic litigation, policy consultations, and public
engagement, rooted in evidence-based research and lived experience. These efforts are adapted to
overcome systemic barriers such as bureaucratic complexity, stigma, and resource deprivation.
5. Has your work been impacted by funding cuts in the past 12 months? If so, please describe what
these cuts have prevented you from being able to do.
Yes. Funding for citizenship-related work has generally been limited. Many international donors are not
fully aware of the prevalence and severity of statelessness and citizenship challenges in Nepal. With the
current political climate, the funding pool has become even more constrained, which has restricted some
of our planned activities and initiatives.
6. If your work has been impacted by funding cuts, please describe how you are attempting to mitigate
the impact of the cuts.
To mitigate the impact, we are actively applying to all potential funding sources and reaching out to
donors who have previously supported other organizations. By building familiarity around the issue of
citizenship and highlighting its urgency, we aim to encourage continued and expanded support for our
work. One of the major supports to CAPN has come from the Global Statelessness Fund (GSF), a
statelessness dedicated fund. This flexible, direct support is tailored to the community-led advocacy,
strengthening our capacity to carry on our national advocacy.
7. What is the single biggest risk you face in your work? This could be, for example, financial
sustainability, restrictive legislation, a hostile public, physical attack, legal action, criminalization,
unsupportive community/family, media or social media smear campaigns or gendered discrimination
(this list is non-exhaustive).
The risks we face in our work are multi-faceted, encompassing financial, legal, social, and political
challenges.
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Financial sustainability is a major concern, as funding for citizenship and statelessness work is
very limited. Very few donors are familiar with the issue or recognize its severity, making
resources scarce.
Restrictive legislation also poses a significant risk. The Constitution of Nepal itself is
discriminatory, as women cannot confer citizenship to their children. This lack of legal protection
not only limits our advocacy work but also exposes civil society members to scrutiny. Nepal is not
a signatory to both the statelessness convention.
Hostile public and unsupportive communities further complicate our work. Nationalism is high,
particularly given Nepal’s open border with India, and many people see changes to citizenship
laws as a threat to national security. Xenophobia and patriarchal societal norms reinforce
resistance to gender-equal citizenship.
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