Human rights situation in Nepal under Maoist-led government

Govt apathy riles NHRC

KAMAL RAJ SIGDEL, The Kathmandu Post

KATHMANDU, April 15 - Nepal's human rights activists paint a sombre picture of the country's future in terms of human rights and democracy. The reason: Most recommendations made by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and other bodies to the government go unheard. 

Bitter but real, the government has not implemented even a single NHRC recommendation to take action against government officials involved in serious violation of  human rights. 

The Maoist-led government's commitment to democracy and human rights raises serious questions, say experts worried over dilly-dallying in extending the operation agreement with the UN HIgh Commissioner for Human Rights in Nepal (OHCHR-Nepal) ending on June 9. 

Of the major recommendations, the ones either turned down or not implemented are: call for investigation into the disappearances of 991 persons, bringing to justice the criminals involved in Kapilvastu massacre, the killer of Ram Hari Shrestha, murderer of defender Daya Ram Pariyar, and other journalists including Uma Singh and Prakash Thakuri. 

As if the non-implementation of recommendations was not enough, the government withdrew in October 2008 the 349 cases of serious crimes pending at the court. 

The government has not acted on the 62 FIRs filed by Human Rights Watch and the Advocacy Forum, reported after the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in November 2006.  "We have said it repeatedly that the country has been undergoing a serious human rights crisis with impunity on the rise …it must be taken seriously" says Gauri Pradhan, a member at NHRC.

In line with the NHRC, several international rights bodies, including the US State Department has warned the government that impunity is on the rise.

Studies have confirmed an alarming number of disappearances: NHRC reports 991, and according to ICRC there are 1,311cases.

Of the total NHRC recommendations made to the government, only about 10 percent has been implemented, but even those cases on which the government has acted, have not been as per NHRC's recommendations, say NHRC officials. 

In such a bleak scenario, the government's effort to introduce commission on disappearances was taken positively, but even this optimism has been shattered, says Pradhan, as the government ignored NHRC's suggestions.

"Why cannot NHRC move the court against those who disobey its recommendations?" questioned a senior rights activist claiming that the Commission has been hesitating to use its constitutional powers. NHRC can also blacklist persons or bodies not implementing its directions as "human right violators", which has not been done so far.