Call for Papers : A Conference on the Legacies of Nepal’s Comprehensive Peace Accord (CPA)

The year 2026 marks twenty years since the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) on 21 November 2006 in Kathmandu that brought the decade-long (1996-2006) armed conflict to an end in Nepal. The CPA catalysed a peace process that did not just end the decade long armed conflict, but also committed to undertake multiple simultaneous transitions: from a monarchy to a republic, from the world’s only Hindu state to a secular one, from a centralised state to a federal one, and from an exclusive state where high-caste Hindus from the hill regions dominated to a more inclusive one. Twenty years later, Nepal’s political settlement has radically altered: historically marginalised communities today are better-represented in state institutions, there has been devolution of power from the centre to the seven ‘new’ provinces, and a new constitutional order agreed in 2015 anchors the idea of naya Nepal. Nepal’s parliament and state bodies now include faces that would have been unimaginable just a few decades ago. Economically, with the end of the armed conflict there have been increased land transactions, economic activities, investments in trade and businesses – including FDI – and infrastructural developments, leading the GDP to soar from US$7 billion in 2004 to US$44 billion in 2024. With the new federal structures there are new forms of economic flows and budget disbursements to the provinces that are re-shaping local political economies.

Nevertheless, amid these achievements, there were colossal lapses and missed opportunities. What began in 2006 as bold and ambitious commitments for state restructuring to a more inclusive order, became mired in processes of elite backlash, and progressive liberal commitments were tempered. Institutional commitments to affirmative action were diluted by the addition of already over-represented ‘Khas Arya’ or high caste groups to the list of ‘communities’ entitled to reservation, while the electoral system privileging Proportional Representation system, so critical to marginalised groups, was reversed to one where FPTP system was privileged for elections across all levels. Tragically, victims’ of war-time human rights violations by the Maoists and state security forces, still wait for justice, despite the formation of institutions such as the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the Commission of Investigation on Enforced Disappeared Persons. Furthermore, amid the sea-changes, is a story of stubborn continuities– sustained inequalities, democracy drained by clientelist patterns of distribution and unrelenting poverty.

Despite these reversals and tempering of commitments, Nepal’s implementation of its CPA is notable in the current global context marked by deep geopolitical competition, ‘thin’ multilateralism, competitive bilateralism, and increased contestation of established global liberal norms such as peace, human rights, equality and inclusion, and the weakening of multilateral frameworks and retreat of aid from western states. Beyond Nepal, these shifts have critical implications for contemporary peacemaking initiatives in other conflict-affected contexts, where multilateral forums like the UN are increasingly struggling to maintain primacy, and peace processes have been assessed to have ‘failed’, or be in ‘crisis’. A notable feature of contemporary peacemaking has been a radical decline in the number comprehensive peace agreements, which are being replaced by localised processes focused on specific issues like ceasefires and humanitarian relief.

Focussing on retrospective examination of the various social and political ’afterlives’, this conference seeks to assess and curate the legacies of Nepal’s CPA, and its impacts on Nepal’s political settlements. The conference will invite key stakeholders and scholars from within and outside of Nepal to discuss and reflect on the intended and unintended legacies of the CPA across various social, political, legal and economic domains. It is expected that the conference will result in an edited volume and a book launch/public engagement in November 2026.

We invite individual papers addressing the legacies of Nepal’s CPA on the following themes (the list is not exclusive):

• Constitutional settlement

• Transitional Justice and human rights

• Federalism and state restructuring

• Affirmative action

• Social and political mobilisations

• Security sector management and democratisation

• Economic transformations

• Political economy of development

• Patronage politics

• International engagements

• Elections and electoral reform

• Political economy of migration and diaspora

• Nepal’s CPA and the global peace agenda

• Localised peace initiatives and memorialisation

• Local justice mechanisms

• Land reform

The conference will be bilingual and we will accept papers in Nepali and English.

Abstract submission

Submit an abstract (not exceeding 300 words) with a brief bio (not exceeding 100 words). Email: nccs@ku.edu.np (and CC: monalisa.adhikari@stir.ac.uk)

Important Dates:

Call for papers issue: 25 June 2025Abstract submission deadline: 25 September 2025Acceptance notification: 12 October 2025Registration open: 15 October 2025Final paper submission deadline: 12 January 2026Registration deadline: 15 January 2026Conference dates: 29-30 January 2026

Registration

Registration fee: NPR 1000 (General), NPR 500 (students)

Conference Organising committee:

Monalisa Adhikari, Uddhab Pyakurel, Ruth Marsden and Jeevan R Sharma

For any queries email: monalisa.adhikari@stir.ac.uk

Conference sponsors:

1. Nepal Centre for Contemporary Studies, Kathmandu University
2. School of History, Heritage and Politics, University of Stirling
3. School of Social and Political Science, University of Edinburgh

---