NEPAL: Police fail to charge those who accused a Dalit woman of witchcraft and forced her to eat human excreta

Dear friends, 

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has learned that police are pressuring a low-caste woman to withdraw a case against a group of people who accused her of being a witch, beat her, and forced her to eat human excreta. There are currently no laws in Nepal designed to protect religious minorities or low-caste Dalits from discrimination, which must be remedied during the drafting of the new constitution. 

CASE DETAILS: 

According to information we have received from the Nepal-based Jaragan Media Centre (JMC), Ms. Somandevi Sardar, a 60-year-old Dalit woman, was accused of being a witch by five shamans from another district on 30 September 2009. The shamans, from Chandbela, Sunsari district, were called to treat the victim’s non-Dalit neighbour, Ms. Paltidevi Khawas at their home in Muderitol, Morang. 

The shamans summoned Somanidevi at midnight on 30 September and accused her of practicing witchcraft on Paltidevi Khawas and making her ill. They started to punch and kick the woman, breaking one of her teeth, before forcing her to eat human waste brought from the nearby road. Her son told NGO representatives that other local civilians participated in the beating. Somandevi was admitted to Koshi Zonal Hospital, Biratnagar to treat psychological trauma. 

However although the victim and her family filed a case against her neighbour, her husband Mangallal Khawas, son Baidanath, and other neighbours (named in the letter below) at the District Police Office (DPO), Morang, they have reported that police were not helpful. Instead they pressured them to withdraw the case and come to an agreement with the culprits. Police have told NGO workers that they are investigating the case and have sent a notice to the those named in the complaint, summoning them to the station. 

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: 

The absence of laws in Nepal designed to protect religious minorities or low-caste members from discrimination has created a vacuum in which crimes go unpunished and strongly-held prejudices are maintained. Dalits in Nepal face sustained social ostracism—which includes restrictions on places they can go and things they can touch–and sometimes this extends to accusations of witchcraft. 

When perpetrators of crimes against this group receive leniency from the police and even open support from civlians, as in this case, Nepalis simply see their prejudices encouraged by the state and violations continue. The message being sent out is that Dalit’s rights are not worth protecting. Please see examples of other weak or negligent investigations into crimes against Dalits in our UA database, including UAC-150-2009, which involves the rape and murder of an 11 year-old Dalit girl and UAC-038-2009 in which another woman was accused of witchcraft, tortured for two days by villagers and forced to eat human excreta. We have been reporting cases of official and non official discrimination as far back as 2004 (UAC-119-2004) and have seen little progress made in public education or police reform. There are still no laws in Nepal designed to protect religious minorities or low-caste Dalits from discrimination. 

This is despite Nepal being a party to international human rights treaties that reject the inherent discrimination of the caste hierarchy, and hold its government responsible for the protection all its citizens’, regardless of their social origin, property, birth or any other kind of status. As these cases show, anti–Dalit sentiment must be tackled among the public, the police and the judiciary, and the first step will be to ensure that those guilty of it face legal action and are removed from positions of authority. 

SUGGESTED ACTION: 

Please write letters to the authorities listed below, urging them to immediately arrest those responsible for the abuse of Ms. Somandevi Sardar and to discipline police officers who have acted negligently in the case. Please urge for protection and compensation for the victim. Please also join us in calling for the drafting of a law to protect religious minorities or Dalits from discrimination in Nepal. 

The AHRC is also writing a separate letter to the UN Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, and on violence against women, its causes and consequencescalling for intervention in this case. 

To support this case, please click here: SEND APPEAL LETTER