A Joint Press Release by Advocacy Forum and the Asian Legal Resource Centre
NEPAL: Advocacy Forum and ALRC submit joint UPR report to the UN concerning ongoing violations and impunity
Please find the UPR report here and background document here.
(Hong Kong and Kathmandu, August 10, 2010) Nepalese non-governmental organisation (NGO) Advocacy Forum (AF) and the Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC), a Hong Kong-based regional human rights NGO, have submitted a joint report to the United Nations Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR). The joint report covers the human rights situation in Nepal since January 2007 and focuses on the breakdown of the rule of law and State institutions, against the background of a fragile peace process, political instability and rising insecurity. Impunity for grave human rights violations persists, while attempts to fill gaps in national legislation and ensure effective transitional justice remain stalled. The report includes cases of torture, extra-judicial killings, forced disappearances, violations of women’s rights; caste-based human rights violations and the dangers and obstacles faced by human rights defenders.
Under the UPR procedure, each member of the United Nations undergoes a review of its human rights record every four years. Nepal will be reviewed for the first time during the upcoming 10th session of the Working Group on the UPR, held between January 24 and February 4, 2011.
On November 21, 2006, the Government of Nepal and the Communist Party of Nepal — Maoist (Maoists) signed the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), bringing to an end a decade-long conflict in which grave and widespread human rights violations were committed by both sides. Commitments to the principles of democracy and respect for human rights were reasserted in the 2007 Interim Constitution and, on 10 April 2008, a Constituent Assembly was elected to write a new Constitution for the country.
However, the Constituent Assembly has still not produced a new Constitution and the political parties have not been able to provide a stable government. Nepal is in a legal limbo in which “many grave human rights violations continue to be committed with impunity,” according to Mandira Sharma, Executive Director of Advocacy Forum. Impunity is being guaranteed at present by the lack of political will to implement court orders and the CPA’s provisions concerning the prosecution of past crimes. Sharma adds that, “Many recent cases of human rights violations are not even being investigated, despite repeated decisions and orders by Nepal’s courts, and this is perpetuating the country’s system of injustice and impunity.”
Cases presented in the report include, for example: women being accused of witchcraft, severely beaten and forced to eat human excreta; a high incidence of torture being used against children; and the ongoing impunity being afforded to an Army officer allegedly responsible for the torture, rape and killing of a 15-year-old girl, Maina Sunuwar.
The report urges the Government of Nepal to ratify much-needed international instruments concerning torture and forced disappearance, and to immediately create domestic legislation that criminalizes torture, forced disappearances and caste-based discrimination. The institutions of the rule of law, specifically the police, prosecution and judiciary, must be strengthened and empowered to ensure effective investigations and prosecutions of past and present rights abuses.
“It is vital for the UPR to focus on the issue of impunity for past and ongoing human rights violations if it is to be of value to victims of abuse and the many in Nepal who continue to live in insecurity and without effective protection or realisation of their rights. The current political stasis and resultant state of transitional injustice must be brought to an end. Nepal’s review under the UPR presents an opportunity for this message to be transmitted in a timely way to all parties in Nepal,” according to Wong Kai Shing, Executive Director of the ALRC.
Please find the UPR report here and background document here.
For more information please contact:
Michael Anthony
ALRC: +64 21 102 7863
