Nepal
in Crisis 2006: Human Rights
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High-level
ICJ mission under way |
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Kathmandu,
September 29, 2005, IRIN
From
dawn to dusk, Shanta Bhandari spends her time looking for her son, who
disappeared in 2002 when the Nepali police arrested him on charges of working
with the Maoist rebels, who have been waging an armed rebellion against
the state for the last 10 years.
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But
her 21-year-old son Bipin was just a student at the time and a member of
the Maoist-affiliated All Nepal National Free Student's Union-Revolutionary
(ANNFSU-R).
Until
2002, the union had not been directly involved in Maoist activities. But
after the breakdown of second ceasefire in 2003, the union started to affect
the educational sector by constantly calling national education strikes,
was involved in extortion, as well as bombing schools to pressure the government
to meet their demands to nationalise all private schools and remove the
terrorist tag from their union. |
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In
2005, the government has again banned ANNSFU-R slating it as terrorist
organisation.KATHMANDU, 29 Sep 2005 (IRIN) - A high-level mission of the
International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) is visiting Nepal for the third
time in less than a year to assess human rights and the rule of law in
the Himalayan country.
During
the four-day visit, which began on Wednesday, the delegation will focus
on the judiciary's role in defending human rights, as well as respect for
the judiciary's decisions, in addition to restrictions on human rights
defenders and lawyers.
ICJ
Secretary-General Nicholas Howen, who is leading the delegation, has met
with senior government officials, the National Human Rights Commission,
the Chief Justice and members of the judiciary and lawyers. According to
human rights activists, the visit plays a significant role in pressuring
the state to respect the judiciary and allow it to work independently -
especially at a time when rule of law is weakening.
"As
an international watchdog, the ICJ can help to create an environment to
internationally pressurise the state to respect the judiciary's decisions,"
Mandira Sharma, a lawyer for Advocacy Forum, a human rights organisation,
said. Her group has been strongly advocating against torture and impunity
of detainees arrested on charges of being Maoists - who have waged an armed
campaign against the government for nine years.
According
the human rights groups, the government has allowed security forces to
arrest anyone on charges of being Maoists and activists are concerned that
many innocent civilians have been falsely arrested and subjected to torture.
But
the main concern among lawyers was that despite court decisions to release
the detainees, many were rearrested by the police as soon as they were
released, defying the orders of even the Supreme Court. In June, security
forces rearrested Karna Bahadur Magar and Bablu Tamang on the court premises
despite his release order.
Recently,
Maoist student leader Krishna KC was ordered by the Supreme Court to be
set free. KC had been detained for the last 25 months in an army barracks
where he was severely tortured. The Supreme Court gave orders last week
to release him. However, he was promptly rearrested as soon as he came
out of the court.
Insec
and other rights groups condemned that such actions by the administration
were illegal and said that this only mocked the principles of the rule
of law. Several rights organisations and lawyers' organisations have been
protesting such contempt of court. The lawyers, however, want the Supreme
Court to raise this issue of state defiance towards the court orders, at
least for its own protection.
"It
is in such cases that we need an international body like the ICJ. It can
play a key role in making recommendations to the attorney-general, as per
suggestions by activists and lawyers, not to allow state defiance of the
court," explained human rights lawyer Bidya Chapagain from the local human
rights group, Insec.
It
is understood that the ICJ mission will be meeting the attorney-general
soon and will make recommendations.
Lawyers
are worried that such acts of defiance against the judiciary have already
lost trust amongst the public, especially amongst the families of the victims
who have come to the court for justice.
"Such
defiance is a systematic way to weaken the judiciary system, which in turn
can be a traumatic experience for the families for whom the justice system
is their last hope," said Sharma, who added that security forces had been
falsifying evidence and fabricating statements to rearrest the released
individuals.
The
ICJ will make its statements public during the end of the week and is expected
to be critical as they have been on previous visits. In March, it said
that Nepal was in the midst of a human rights crisis marked by enforced
disappearances, extrajudicial execution, torture, secret detention and
impunity of the security forces. It also criticised King Gyanendra for
abandoning the rule of law and deepening the conflict after he assumed
direct rule in 1 February.
Meanwhile,
lawyers said that the ICJ will be working closely with NGOs on over 15
themes particularly related to human rights, torture and law. The ICJ also
helped a group of 25 human rights organisations to establish a human rights
home in the capital to provide shelter and protection to human rights defenders,
who were especially at risk after a state of emergency was imposed after
1 February.
Credit
IRIN 2006 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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