Constitutional Liberty and Protest Policing: A Comparative Perspective on Structural Impunity, Gen Z Dissent and Accountability Reform in Nepal Doctrinal and comparative legal research

Nepal’s Constitution of 2015 protects dignity, personal liberty, peaceful assembly and constitutional remedies. Yet investigations into the 2015 Terai protests and the September 2025 Gen Z uprising expose a persistent gap between rights and the use of state coercion. This paper argues that the gap is best understood through an accountability chain: broad public-order powers, qualified protection for official acts, evidentiary dependence and uncertain institutional implementation. The analysis focuses on sections 35, 37 and 38 of the Police Act, 2012 B.S. (1955 C.E.), sections 6, 6A and 6B of the Local Administration Act, 2028 B.S. (1971 C.E.) and Nepal’s duties under the ICCPR and Convention against Torture. Through doctrinal analysis, a source-critical reconstruction of protest events, peer-reviewed scholarship and carefully delimited comparative jurisprudence, the article separates contemporaneous death counts from later totals, inquiry recommendations from court judgments and state violence from crimes by other actors. It incorporates the 2026 inquiry and National Human Rights Commission findings, one-year anniversary reporting and the October 2026 review of protest-related criminal cases. Its central contribution is a rights-consistent and measurable program for controlling force, preserving evidence, independently investigating deaths and protecting remedies without undermining legitimate public safety.