Social
Life: Sexual Minorities |
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Nepal SOCIAL LIFE |
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Nepal Information |
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Sexual
minorities face police brutality
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For
Kala Rai, the freedom she so desperately craved as a 'meti', or transgender
person living in Kathmandu, has never come easy. Arriving in the Nepali
capital three years earlier from the small town of Dharan in Sunsari district,
600 km from the city, her plight is indicative of many in this particularly
marginalised community.
"As
a meti, I have always faced problems with my family and had limited opportunities,"
the demure 25-year-old explained, adding: "All I wanted was to live my
own life."
But
living that life comes at a price in this conservative Himalayan nation
of 27.6 million.
"I
am constantly harassed by the police, who taunt me, take my money and even
beat me if I don't do what they demand," she maintained, claiming she herself
had been raped by the police on at least three different occasions.
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Such
acts have not gone unnoticed, however, with repeated calls on the government
by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch (HRW) and the International
Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission to work for greater tolerance of
sexual minorities.
According
to the Blue Diamond Society (BDS), Nepal's only organisation for sexual
minorities, more than 200 cases have been reported since the NGO first
began recording such human rights abuses in 2003, but it believes many
cases go unreported, particularly outside the capital. |
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"The
situation with regard to the meti community in Nepal has gone from bad
to worse, with routine incidents of police brutality being reported," Sunil
Pant, BDS's founder and director, said on Wednesday in Kathmandu, citing
routine incidents of physical and sexual abuse, blackmail, extortion and
even attempted murder.
"The
human rights abuses faced by metis are generally worse than [those experienced
by] other sexual minorities in Nepal," he added.
Indeed,
on Monday, one day before 'Holi', a national holiday marking the advent
of spring all over Nepal, 27 metis were systematically rounded up by the
police and are currently being held at Nepal's district headquarters without
charge.
"Usually
there are never any formal charges placed against them," Pant conceded,
voicing his frustration at trying to secure their release from jail. Many
of them were simply picked up off the street or even from their homes.
These
arrests reportedly occurred less than a week after the US State Department's
report on the human rights situation in Nepal was published, acknowledging
violence against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) persons
by members of the Nepalese police, his group said on Tuesday.
"We
were allowed to talk to them for just two minutes," the activist said,
noting many of those being detained had complained of cold, the denial
of food and a lack of clean bedding. "We weren't even allowed to get their
names," he complained, referring to his morning visit on Tuesday.
But
such incidents involving Nepal's sexual minorities are far from unusual.
On 9 August 2004, the police similarly rounded up 39 metis, keeping them
incarcerated for 13 days before any charges were finally brought against
them.
"It
was only after mounting international pressure and a media campaign that
charges of public offence were actually made against them," Pant said,
noting such acts serve only to marginalise the meti community further,
many of whom have been driven to prostitution in the city of 2.5 million
just to survive.
Nepal
ranks among the world's poorest countries with a per capita income of around
US $300, making the chance of metis securing any form of employment all
but impossible. "No one wants to give them jobs. Even finding jobs cleaning
restaurants has proven difficult for them. They do what they have to survive,"
Pant explained.
"A
lot of metis couldn't go to school because the schools wouldn't accept
them," he added, underscoring the desperation and climate of discrimination
they face.
Although
there are no exact figures on the number of metis in the country, BDS counts
between 500 to 700 transgender individuals regularly active within their
organisation. Moreover, BDS asserts the ongoing conflict between the government
and Maoists has forced more metis to move to the capital for safety.
But
advocating for gay and transgender rights in a country like Nepal continues
to be a challenge, with BDS currently awaiting a Supreme Court decision
on a petition calling for the NGO's ultimate closure - much to the chagrin
of outside observers.
"Nepal's
government must decide whether it wants to enforce homophobia or protect
basic human rights," Scott Long, Director of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual
and Transgender Rights Project at HRW, said, commenting earlier on the
April 2004 incident.
According
to the international watchdog group, although there was no provision in
Nepalese law that explicitly criminalised homosexual activity, the country's
civil code punished "any kind of unnatural sex" with up to one year in
prison - precisely the provision used to justify arrests of men who have
sex with men (MSM) and transgender individuals in the kingdom.
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Credit
IRIN 2008
Copyright
Ⓒ UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2006
[
This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]
Integrated
Regional Information Networks (IRIN), part of the UN Office for the Coordination
of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). |
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