The continuing struggle for human rights

Nepal has certainly made headway in terms of human rights in the last few decades, but the failure to address war-era crimes and the systemic aversion to legislative reforms continue to bog down the movement at present

- [February 19, 2012, The Kathmandu Post]

ECEMBER 10, 1988 dawned dark and dismal in Nepal.

The first breed of human rights defenders had just dared

To place a signboard for their newborn organisation outside

the balcony of a house in Thamel. This was a perilous move

considering all organisations fighting for

democracy and rights had been

outlawed at the time by the then-royal

establishment.

As expected, within a few minutes, there

was a police squad dislodging the board.

Inside the house, over a hundred rights

activists, including current PM Baburam

Bhattarai, Rishikesh Shah, Prof Kapil Shrestha,

Nutan Thapaliya, Sushil Pyakurel, and Daman

Nath Dhungana, were discussing how best to

spearhead the human rights movement in the

face of such a repressive regime. When they

saw the police there, they assumed they would

all be arrested.

Rishikesh Shah, however, grew furious at

the sight of the police storming into his

private building, where the Human Rights

Organization was housed. He rushed inside

his chamber, picked up the very gun King

Mahendra had presented him for his

contribution in drafting the constitution of

1962, came out and threatened to shoot the

DSP right between the eyes.

“It was so pleasing to see the DSP and his

squad running away for their lives after Shah

threatened to shoot them down with this big

gun—one that King Mahendra used to shoot

wild elephants with,” recalls Prof Kapil

Shrestha. “We clapped because it was

symbolic: a gun that had been gifted by a king

striking back at the establishment.”

The incident marks an important stage in

the movement when loosely-organised

defenders like the one led by Shah and others,

including the Human Rights Protection Forum

led by Mathura Shrestha, and Amnesty

International brought to Nepal by Nutan

Thapaliya, joined hands with the political

parties—Nepali Congress and CPN-UML—

who were gearing up for the decisive

pro-democracy movement.

When democracy was eventually restored

in 1990, then-PM Krishna Prasad Bhattarai

signed seven international human rights

treaties, including the UN International

Covenant on Civil and Political Rights

(ICCPR)—setting a record in the UN system.

While the Nepali Congress and its part in

the struggle for democracy were well known to

the palace and the bureaucracy, the UML was

still somewhat unfamiliar for them. And

human rights activists were an entirely new

breed. “The officials in the palace and the

bureaucrats used to call us ‘new animals’,”

says Shrestha. And at an international seminar

on torture in 1991, Home Secretary Padam

Prasad Pokherel gave an interesting insight

into the Nepali bureaucracy’s views on human

rights when he dubbed the human rights

organisations themselves a “new type of

torturer” because of how persistent they were

in accusing officials of rights abuse.

Soon, an increased engagement within the

human rights community and expanding

diplomatic relations with the outer world,

helped mainstream the movement into

government policies and plans. Today, 20

years down the line, and despite a decadelong

war that ravaged the country, things

seems to be heading in the right direction, as

Nepal’s transition from a violent past to a

more stable, peaceful, democratic and

prosperous future continues—although laced

inevitably with ups and downs.

WHAT DID WE ACHIEVE?

One of the most significant trends

to emerge in the past two decades has

been the heightened level of awareness

among the general public regarding

their unalienable rights and the birth of a

strong and vibrant civil society network that

has made authoritarianism almost impossible

in the future.

While it happened much earlier in Western

societies, it was mainly during the past two

and a half decades that Nepalis actually

became aware of new democratic values, their

own fundamental rights, and what these rights

and values signified. The huge political

changes that rocked the country over time

played a big role in affecting people’s

understanding and thinking. And the Maoist

rebellion between 1996-2006, pushed the

rights movement, especially of the so far

excluded and marginalised ethnic and caste

groups, to new heights.

As a result, protection of human rights

today is not only an agenda of civil society but

also a priority of the state. Human rights have

been formally enshrined in the draft of the

new constitution and integrated into the

government’s policies and national plans

(National Human Rights Action Plan 2004), in

school and college-level curriculum, and in

the working modality of the security forces.

Nepal has made significant progress, for

instance, in securing the rights of women and

children. Over 33 percent representation of

women in the House, legislation of inclusion

and reservation, remarkable progress in

reducing the maternal mortality rate as per

the target of the Millennium Development

Goals (MDGs), repeal of almost all the laws

and legal provisions that were discriminatory

with regards to gender and caste, and progress

made in the net enrolment of children in

schools—all these are cause for celebration.

The positive impact of these changes on

the lives of common people has been reflected

in a number of recent annual indexes such as

the UNDP Human Development Report (2010),

which places Nepal as one of the fastest

movers in the Human Development Index,

with about 50 percent decrease in the population

living below the poverty line (from 42 percent

in 2000 to 25.4 percent in 2010); as well as

the World Global Hunger Index and

Democracy Index of the Economist, which

show Nepal progressing both in democracy

and hunger reduction.

Most notably, vital institutional infrastructures

needed for propping up human rights

have been established. The National Human

Rights Commission (NHRC) is now a

constitutional body. Very few have noticed

that the Commission, which is awarded the

top ‘A’ status as per the standards of the UNadopted

Paris Principles, stands out as one of

the most powerful national rights watchdogs

in the South Asian region. Each of the security

forces—Nepal Police, Armed Police Force, and

Nepal Army—once largely unaware of rights

issues, have also set up separate human rights

cells. And PM Baburam Bhattarai heads a

steering committee, which oversees human

rights related programmes, policies, and

recommendations.

CHALLENGES TO COME

The fact that not a single official accused

of serious rights violation has been punished

so far speaks volumes about the challenges

facing the country today on this front. We

witnessed a bloody conflict that resulted in

the death of about 16,729 persons,

displacement of 78,689, disappearance of

1,327, alongside many cases of rape, torture

and abduction, and devastation of public and

private infrastructures

valued at about Rs 5 billion (PMO ICCPR

Report 2010). But thousands are still waiting

for truth, reparation, and justice. The

governments formed after the 2006

Janandolan have only distributed ‘interim

relief’ worth over Rs 8 billion but the process

is far from being fair and transparent as

partisan politics always rules the roost.

It is time the parties realised that lasting

peace depends on how well they are able to

identify and address the root causes of the

conflict—discrimination, inequality, injustice,

and the very impunity they have themselves

fostered one way or the other since or before

the conflict. “No doubt we have leapfrogged in

the past two decades on a number of

indicators but the overall progress,

especially in addressing impunity, has

remained depressing,” says NHRC member

Gauri Pradhan. “None of our recommendations

asking for punishment of officials guilty

of rights violations have been implemented.

Instead, politics continues to become

criminalised and crime politicised. This is

sure to institutionalise impunity.”

As Pradhan says, historically speaking,

impunity remains the most serious challenge

facing the human rights movement.

Be it the report from the Mallik Commission

that investigated the abuses during the

1990 Democratic Movement, or the Rayamajhi

Commission’s probe into the abuses

during the 2006 Janandolan, all remain shackled

in paper.

Another area where Nepal is falling short is

in the case of legislative reforms—such as

criminalisation of torture, ratification of the

Convention Against Torture (CAT) and the

Rome Statute of the International Criminal

Court (ICC)—which, if adopted, could warn

upcoming leaders against repeating the rights

abuses of the past. In a young democracy like

Nepal, it is all the more important to learn a

lesson from history and ensure that no future

leader develops an ambition for absolute rule

and repression.

While there is an ongoing attempt to form transitional justice mechanisms—the Truth

and Reconciliation Commission and the Commission on Enforced Disappearances, for

example, these promise little to the victims as the parties have agreed on blanket amnesty

for all conflict-era crimes, including rape. This failure to address war-era crimes and the

systemic aversion to legislative reforms, continue to bog down the human rights

movement at present.

Parties need to want to change and they need to take the movement seriously, rather than, as Shrestha puts it, try to compartmentalize human rights into a small entity that they can push around without affecting their agenda. “Human rights can’t be limited; it’s not just about principles—it’s a way of life.” [Author: Sigdel, KR. Sigdel is the News Coordinator at The Kathmandu Post and reports on politics and human rights. The article was first published on February 19, 2012 Democracy Day special edition of The Kathmandu Post. 
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