A/HRC/12/34/Add.3 page 5 other regions of the country, for their instrumental help in all phases of the visit, and Luis Rodriguez-Piñero and the University of Arizona Indigenous Peoples Law and Policy Program for its support in the preparation of this report. II. BACKGROUND 6. Nepal is currently undergoing a historical process of change in the definition of its political, legal and social make-up. The ongoing transition towards democracy, best represented in the constitution-making process, is an opportunity to improve the status and conditions of the social sectors that have been historically marginalized from political decisions and deprived of the full benefits of citizenship. The numerous culturally distinct groups that are regarded or regard themselves as Adivasi Janajati (indigenous peoples) are among these groups, and they have become a powerful voice in demanding recognition and respect for their human rights. 7. The modern State of Nepal resulted from the consolidation of political power in the late eighteenth to early nineteenth centuries by Gorkha royalty over numerous ethnically and culturally differentiated groups, including the Adivasi Janajati whose ancestors were among the earliest inhabitants of the territory and who had lived under their own political orders. The unification of these diverse groups into a single State was achieved at the expense of political and cultural plurality, and with the cementing of a feudal and social hierarchy that was overtly exclusionary of the Adivasi Janajati. The 1962 Constitution, promulgated during the Panchayat regime, declared Nepal as a Hindu State, thereby perpetuating the religious, linguistic and cultural homogenization of the country’s identity. 8. The introduction of a multiparty parliamentary system by the ruling monarch, King Birenda, in 1990 did not alter the historical dynamics of discrimination and marginalization, which were targets of the armed conflict that began with the Maoist insurgency in 1996. The conflict was accompanied by systemic human rights violations, including extrajudicial killings, internal displacement, rape and torture, in which indigenous peoples and other communities paid a heavy toll. 9. In April 2006, a Seven Party Alliance, supported by the Communist Party of Nepal-Maoists (CPN-M), headed a 19-day-long mobilization that ousted the monarchy and reinstated the Parliament. In November 2006, a Comprehensive Peace Agreement was signed between the Government and CPN-M, which included the commitment to develop a new constitution. In November 2007, the Parliament passed an Interim Constitution, which established a Constituent Assembly, responsible primarily for drafting a new constitution. Elections to the Constituent Assembly eventually took place in April 2008. 10. The process of constitution-making marks the transition towards democracy in Nepal as well as the reformulation of the country’s identity along lines that are more representative of the country’s plurality. This process, unprecedented in the country’s history, is one of both opportunities and challenges as policymakers, civil society actors and community leaders confront challenges in the State’s policies and societal structures that are strongly rooted in the