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Unenviable Situation Of Human Right Defenders In Nepal
Bt KTM Metro Reporter
February 23, 2011: A Hong Kong-based independent regional non-governmental organization called Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) holding general consultative status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations is the sister organization of the Asian Human Rights Commission, and works on strengthening and encouraging positive action on legal and human rights issues at the local and national levels throughout Asia. Recently, the ALRC has stated that the situation for human rights defenders (HRDs) in Nepal is very depressing, as the country still does not have an institutional and legislative framework for addressing past and present human rights abuses. Consequently, human rights defenders dealing with past and current cases of human rights abuses face various forms of threat.
Political groups bullied and threatened the lawyers taking up the cases of human rights. Cadres belonging to various political parties regularly interfere in the justice-delivery process. Political cadres have locked up lawyers working on the cases of human rights abuses in their offices, and have verbally and physically abused them for taking up cases that go against the political parties. Political parties fighting for power have little time for dealing with these issues, and one government after another has failed in responding to them.
National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has played a very positive role in the past concerning victims of human rights abuses and HRDs but it has lost its credibility as an independent institution, as it lacks a formal, constitutional mandate. Therefore, the presence of the field Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Nepal is of tremendous importance, the ALRC says.
Attacks on journalists and human rights defenders are continuing in Nepal and the government has not initiated to prevent the recurrence of such attacks. The proliferation of armed criminal groups in the Terai region, and the State’s inability to ensure the rule of law have further exposed HRDs to insecurity.
State-actors have bullied the human rights defenders working on denouncing human rights abuses perpetrated by the police and the army. The police and the army fiercely resist attempts to hold their personnel accountable for human rights violations. They even threaten the reprisals if the victims seek justice reporting the abuses. The absence of comprehensive measures to ensure the protection of HRDs against threats and attacks directly infringes on a number of rights, freedoms and principles, which are necessary components of democratization and peace building in Nepal. The failure in protecting HRDs contributes to the general climate of impunity in Nepal and denies victims the right to effective remedies. The culture of impunity enables the attacks on HRDs, undermining any enjoyment of human rights in the country, the ALRCA reports.
