By 
08-05-2026 | Lola Louise-Alexandrine | Asia Team Researcher, Global Human Rights Defence.
Stemming from a structural failure to establish written policy and ensure its implementation, transgender individuals in Nepal currently face an administrative freeze and arbitrary treatment in their application process for official gender recognition.
Nepalese authorities have stopped processing applications from transgender individuals wishing to change their legally recognised gender on their government-issued identity papers.
According to Human Rights Watch, the administrative freeze began in early 2025 and has kept deteriorating since. The Ministry of Home Affairs has suspended binary recognition, the ability to change gender markers to male or female, for individuals who do not provide documentation addressing official genital surgery. Indeed, despite a 2007 landmark Supreme Court ruling directing the government to issue documents based on self-identification, no formal or written policy was ever created to ensure implementation. In the absence of a clear framework, the processing of applications has become inconsistent and arbitrary. In fact, local officials have been reported to often demand invasive and humiliating physical examinations or medical certificates that are not required by law.
Additionally, not only are the consequences of this humiliating for transgender people, but they also create major obstacles in accessing education, healthcare, and formal employment. For instance, affected individuals often find themselves being turned away by customs officials when registering their own businesses, because their legal documents do not match their gender identity. As highlighted in the local media, people in Nepal are “being promised something” and right after are “being told, not through any official announcement, but through silence, unreturned calls, and stalled paperwork, that [the law] no longer applies to [them]”.
For Nepal, a country that was previously considered a pioneer for gender identity recognition, this striking administrative downslope and long-lasting procedure delays mark an important human right regression.
