Dear friends,
The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) wishes to forward to you the following press release from the Center for Victims of Torture-Nepal (CVICT).
Asian Human Rights Commission
Hong Kong
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A Press Release from the Center for Victims of Torture-Nepal forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC)
The Center for Victims of Torture Nepal warns that the current conditions of detention in Nepal jails do not respect the prisoners’ fundamental rights and amount to inhuman and degrading treatment. It has been 49 years since the prison act was formulated followed by many amendments. However none of the provisions in the act have been implemented and many need further amendments. The prisoners are denied even the most basic human rights.
CVICT’s recent fact sheet released on 26 June 2011, based on a study of 7 prisons, showed an alarming situation. 74% of the detainees in those prisons were found to have been tortured during police interrogation and most of them were found to be living in inhuman conditions. Such situation hampers the rehabilitation process of the prisoners and as a result, many former prisoners fall back into crime after their release, a serious concern for the society.
Most prisons in Nepal are overcrowded and the conditions of detention are extremely poor. As per the Department of Prison Management records in 2011 Nepal jails are accommodating a total of 11,445 prisoners while they only have the capacity to accommodate 6416 of them. Prisoners are kept in unhygienic conditions and are denied access to basic services. Confined in an unhealthy living environment, the prisoners have an inadequate access to holistic health services, including psycho-social services. This was observed while conducting mobile health clinics in 7 prisons of Nepal where 83 % of the prisoners were found to be suffering from psychological as well as physical disabilities. The prisoners most commonly suffered from anxiety, post traumatic stress symptoms, scabies, fungal infections and other communicable diseases. In all prisons international standards on separation of prisoners/detainees as per the status of their case, their health conditions or their sex have never been implemented. Prisoners are routinely tortured and inhumanely treated by prison personnel as highlighted in CVICT’s report on mobile health clinics.
Those issues are exacerbated in the absence of an effective management of the jails. Prisons have a poor infrastructural capacity and an unsatisfactory management system. They lack competent and sufficient personnel. Being transferred to work in the DoPM or in the prisons is considered as a punishment by the prison officials. Such low esteem discourages them to work effectively for better management of prisons. The prison management further suffers from the absence of a proper database of the number of prisoners under trial or convicted, containing desegregated data on the status of the prisoners’ trial or the release dates of convicted which can help in better management. There is no mechanism to monitor the prison management, the situation of prisoners and the prison conditions and to advocate for appropriate reforms..
The prisoners’ legal rights are routinely denied. CVICT is concerned at the number of detainees who are lingering in prisons while their cases are pending, as justice is delayed due to information on their case missing or delayed. Legal or paralegal services are not made available to the prisoners.
In addition, CVICT is concerned by repeated incidents in 2011 which showed a deteriorated security situation inside the jails. The case of a hit man allowed to walk freely into Kathmandu Central Jail to shoot at detainee Nepal TV chief Mohammed Yunus Ansari is of serious concern. Another example of the consequences of inappropriate prison management is the case of prisoners allowed to plan criminal activities from the inside of the jail, as in Nuwakot district were extortion of entrepreneurs and affluent families was proven to be planned and executed from inside the prison in March 2011. There were many other incidents like these in 2011.
Although a few amendments have been made to the current legislative framework, calls for a necessary policy reform and the effective implementation of the existing legislations fall on deaf ears. For instance, the Prison act 2019 B.S. authorizes prisoners to join community service after three years of imprisonment. However, until now not a single prisoner has been sent for community service, a part of the rehabilitation process, aggravating the overcrowding of the prisons. Likewise, the act also states that those who have completed one third of their prison term or three years imprisonment should be kept in an open prison for rehabilitation. No such open prison has been established in Nepal, hence none of the prisoners have benefited from this provision.
Due to the above mentioned factors and the lack of security that the prisoners themselves face, 2011 saw an increase in conflict amongst prisoners and between the prisoners and the management. The recent conflict in Chitwan prison on the 6th of December has been a bitter illustration of this.
Considering the seriousness of the issues presented above and on the occasion of Human Rights Day celebrated around the globe on the 10th of December, the Centre for Victims of Torture Nepal urges the government, to take immediate measures to ensure the protection of the rights and human dignity of the prisoners. We urge the government to reform the prison act and regulation of 2019 B.S and execute the existing policies providing for open prisons and community service. We also urge the government to enforce better security measures for prisoners as well as for the prison management.
Centre for Victims of Torture Nepal (CVICT)
cvict@cvict.org.np
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About CVICT: CVICT was established in 1990 and has focused its work on the rehabilitation of torture victims and the prevention of torture. CVICT’s goals are to restore human dignity, end impunity, and work towards eradicating torture from Nepal. For more information: http://www.cvict.org.np/
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