mikeldunham

Nepal ranks 20th in modern day slavery index

 

November 25, 2014

 

 

Nepal has been ranked 20th among 167 countries in terms of the prevalence of modern day slavery. The 2014 Global Slavery Index has estimated that 228,700 people in the country are subjected to modern day slavery.

 

The report released by Walk Free Foundation last week has also listed Nepal as the fifth most vulnerable country to modern day slavery in the Asia Pacific region. Neighbouring India ranks top most in the region followed by Pakistan, Cambodia and Mongolia.

 

In the world rankings, India and Pakistan are ranked fifth and sixth, respectively. Mauritania ranks first in the index with four percent of its almost 4 million people subjected to modern day slavery, followed by (2) Uzbekistan, (3) Haiti and (4) Qatar.

 

The report also highlights that men from Nepal along with Sri Lanka and Bangladesh working in the Middle East are in forced labor in the construction industry, while women from the same countries have been subjected to sexual exploitation and domestic violence.

 

The case study of Qatar carried out in the report also says that migrant workers from Nepal and other South Asian countries are subjected to a range of exploitative practices, including forced labor, domestic servitude, extortionate recruitment fees, illegal confiscation of passports, withholding of salaries, hazardous workplaces, unhygienic living conditions and physical, psychological and sexual abuse from employers.

 

The Australia-based organization, which works to end modern day slavery, prepares its report based on researches over a year. The report terms the modern day slavery as involvement of a person possessing or controlling another person to significantly deprive that person of their individual liberty and with the intention of exploiting that person through their use, management, profit, transfer or disposal. The report states that India also remains susceptible destination for Nepali women and children. “Young Nepali women banned from traveling to the Gulf for domestic work also pass through India as an alternative route. Some of these migrants then experience abuse and exploitation. Other migrants are fraudulently sent by recruiters to India to be transported to jobs in the Gulf, only to remain in India in positions of forced labor or commercial sexual exploitation,” the report has stated.

 

According to the report, around 38.5 million people around the world are the victims of modern day slavery.

 

To download the Report

 

CLICK HERE

 

 

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HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH tells Nepal to drop sedition charges against CK Raut

 

October 16, 2014

 

 

"Arrest of CK Raut Violates Free Speech Rights"

 

Dr.CK Raut, a former US-based Nepali computer scientist, returned from the US to Nepal in 2011, and since then has become the central coordinator of the Alliance for Independent Madhesh, a group which is seeking establishment of an independent and sovereign Madhesh, the plains region in southern Nepal. Raut earned his PhD from Cambridge University, is a social activist, director of the documentary ‘Black Buddhas' (2011) and the author of 'A History of Madhesh', among other books. To view Raut’s entire documentary, see my link at the end of this report. The report was filed by Brad Adams, Asia director for Human Rights Watch:

 

 

 

Many Nepalis have recently struggled to break out of feudal structures and ensure democratic rights. Freedom of expression is a cornerstone of a good democracy. But the government is going after an activist expressing concerns about marginalized communities from the Terai.

 

The Nepal authorities should immediately withdraw sedition charges and unconditionally release rights campaigner Chandra Kant Raut, who was arrested for his expression of peaceful political opinions. Nepal should amend its practices to comply with international and domestic standards to protect freedom of expression.

 

Raut was arrested on September 14, 2014, for allegedly advocating that the southern plains of Nepal, known as the Terai, be allowed to secede from the rest of the country as part of a long-standing debate on state restructuring. On October 8 he was charged with sedition, presumably under the Crime against State and Punishment Act 1989, which forbids any “attempts to cause any disorder with an intention to jeopardise sovereignty, integrity or national unity of Nepal.” It carries a penalty of life imprisonment.  Police also said that Raut has written articles and books advocating secession by Madhesis, the Terai community. There is no evidence that Raut advocated the use of violence, or that his actions led to violence.

 

“Many Nepalis have recently struggled to break out of feudal structures and ensure democratic rights,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Freedom of expression is a cornerstone of a good democracy. But the government is going after an activist expressing concerns about marginalized communities from the Terai.”

 

Nepali politicians have long been drawn largely from the upper-caste hill tribes. Following the ceasefire agreement of 2006 after a 10-year civil war, the country embarked on a constitution-writing process which promised inclusion for traditionally marginalized communities, including from the Terai. Central to the promise of inclusion was the pledge to re-draw the state to create provinces or regions without giving dominance to the upper-caste hill tribes. However, the constitution remains in limbo as political parties have failed to come to a consensus.

 

The debate has been filled with anxiety that the Terai, which runs east to west along Nepal’s porous border with India and is a critical transit for trade in the land-locked country, will seek greater autonomy. Raut, formerly a US resident, returned to Nepal in 2011, and leads a group that seeks to establish an independent Madhesh in the area.

 

“Raut’s call for an independent Terai has to be understood in the historical and political context in which the discussion on state restructuring is occurring,” said Adams. “His arrest threatens the chances of a robust debate on federalism, and undermines the promise of inclusion. Raut’s arrest shows that minority voices can and will be easily sidelined.”

 

Nepal is a state party signatory to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which guarantees the right to free expression. Any limits placed on free expression must be set out clearly in domestic law, be nondiscriminatory in impact and must be strictly necessary for national security or public order. The authorities have not produced any evidence that Raut’s peaceful call for an independent Terai was a threat to national security or public order that could justify his arrest.

 

“Instead of releasing Raut for lack of a genuine threat, the authorities decided to justify their arrest by slapping sedition laws against him, nearly a month later,” said Adams. “Such laws are typically used by repressive regimes to control critical speech, and it appears that Nepal has decided to go down this unseemly route.”

 

 

To view Raut’s documentary in full, click on the two links below:

 

 

BLACK BUDDHAS Part One

 

BLACK BUDDHAS Part Two

 

 

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Real cost of Qatar World Cup: Nearly 400 Nepalese workers have died in last two years

 

January 27, 2014

 

 

The appalling mistreatment of Nepali migrant workers in Doha, Qatar -- despite reform promises from it’s government and FIFA’s “concern” -- continues, apparently unabated.

 

The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) recently predicted that up to 4000 migrant workers could die before the 2022 World Cup, if meaningful reforms are not established. According to their documents the total number of verified deaths among workers from Nepal – just one of several countries that supply hundreds of thousands of migrant workers to the gas-rich state – is now at least 382 in two years alone. At least 36 of those deaths were registered in the weeks following the global outcry over migrant worker abuse in Qatar, revealed by the Guardian in September 2013.

 

 

 

 

The revelations forced FIFA's president, Sepp Blatter – continually dogged by allegations of corruption – to promise that football would not turn a blind eye to the issue following a stormy executive committee meeting. To date, his promise had produced no results.

 

Because of political instability, high unemployment rate and other issues, over 450,000 Nepalis annually migrate to foreign countries. Nearly 1500 people leave the country for foreign employment every day.

 

Nepalis make up about a sixth of Qatar's 2 million-strong population of migrant workers. Verified figures for the 2013 death rates among those from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and elsewhere have yet to emerge.

 

 

For video   CLICK HERE   Warning: graphic material. 

 

The Nepali organization working with the families of dead workers to repatriate their bodies and campaign for adequate compensation from the companies that employed them under the kafala sponsorship system said on Friday that Fifa should do more.

 

The Pravasi Nepali Co-ordination Committee (PNCC), which has cross-checked the figures from official sources in Doha against death certificates and passports, is still receiving new cases on a regular basis. The Guardian has seen evidence of at least a further eight cases, which would take the 2013 total to 193.

 

The PNCC called on Fifa's sponsors to reconsider their relationship with world football's governing body, which awarded the World Cup to Qatar in December 2010.

 

"Fifa and the government of Qatar promised the world that they would take action to ensure the safety of workers building the stadiums and infrastructure for the 2022 World Cup. This horrendous roll call of the dead gives the lie to those reassurances," said the PNCC. "These were young or otherwise able-bodied men, with their futures in front of them, families at home and everything to live for. Many have been literally worked to death. Some have met with even more sinister ends. All have been betrayed by Fifa."

 

 

 

The Guardian investigation last year revealed that at least 44 Nepalese workers had died in Qatar between 4 June and 8 August, more than half of them of heart attacks, heart failure or workplace accidents. But the full list of deaths recorded during the year, collated by the Nepalese NGO from official sources and documents in Doha and seen by the Guardian, shows that the actual figure is much higher.

 

In June, July and August alone 65 deaths were recorded by the PNCC during summer months when temperatures can regularly top 40C. The causes included traffic accidents, blunt injuries and fractures ascribed to falls and suicide. But more than 65 of the deaths in 2013 are ascribed to "sudden cardiac arrests" and more than half to some kind of heart failure. Campaigners believe the cause of death is often officially listed as a cardiac arrest because it covers a "multitude of sins".

 

Asked last year by the Guardian why so many young Nepalese men died of heart attacks, the Qatari labour ministry said: "This question would be better suited for the relevant health authorities or the government of Nepal."

 

 

As long ago as 2011, Fifa said it would work with the International Trade Union Confederation to address labour issues with the Qatari authorities. "We have a responsibility that goes beyond the development of football and the organisation of our competition," Fifa secretary general Jérôme Valcke said in November 2011.

 

But the ITUC has remained a strident critic of the lack of progress made by Qatari authorities on the issue, while groups including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have continued to highlight the appalling conditions suffered by some of the workers in a £137bn construction boom.

 

In November, Amnesty warned in a damning report that workers were enduring 12-hour days in sweltering conditions and living in squalid, overcrowded accommodation. The ITUC has warned that up to 4,000 workers may die before a ball is kicked in 2022 without meaningful reform of the kafala system and stringent control of the myriad construction companies and sub-contractors involved.

 

After the global outcry that followed the Guardian's coverage, Blatter travelled to meet the Emir of Qatar and declared it was "on the right track" in dealing with the issue. But following a meeting with the ITUC in Zurich a month later, Fifa said that "fair working conditions with a lasting effect must be introduced quickly".

 

The PNCC, which has painstakingly cross-checked death certificates and other documentation with official records in Doha, said Fifa and the Qatari government needed to move faster: "Fifa president Sepp Blatter said in October there was 'plenty of time' to address this issue. For the labourers dying every week in Qatar to build the infrastructure to host Mr Blatter's World Cup, there is no time left."

 

 

Attention is also turning to the role of Fifa's sponsors, with the PNCC joining calls for them to review their relationship with it. Visa and Adidas recently signed new deals until 2022. "Qatar's failure to disclose or explain these deaths, and Fifa's failure to monitor them, are alarming in the extreme. We call upon the World Cup's corporate sponsors – Coca-Cola, Adidas, Visa, Hyundai and Budweiser – urgently to review their arrangements with Fifa," a spokesman said.

 

Last month the London mayor, Boris Johnson, travelled to Doha to drum up trade for British business. Foreign Office minister Hugh Robertson held talks with the Qataris aimed at boosting trade and said the UK would "offer support" in delivering the 2022 World Cup.

 

A spokesman for the Foreign Office insisted the issue of migrant workers was also raised. "Mr Robertson discussed the issue of migrant workers with the Qatari authorities during his recent visit," he said."

 

But the PNCC said that the flow of coffins returning to Kathmandu airport, which continued throughout December, even on Christmas Day, told its own story. "Thanks to the work of the Guardian and other media, this abuse is finally being exposed," said the PNCC spokesman.

 

"We call upon civilised governments as a matter of the greatest urgency to demand that Qatar takes meaningful action to protect foreign workers on its soil – including reform of the kafala system of labour, which encourages employers to treat their workers as property rather than human beings."

 

The full list of deaths recorded between January and September 2012, also seen by the Guardian, shows that at least 127 Nepalese nationals died during that period and there are believed to have been at least another 70 fatalities during the final three months of that year.

 

 

 

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Mikel Dunham’s interview with Mandira Sharma: Protecting Rule of Law on behalf of abused women in Nepal

 

April 15, 2013

 

Depending on whom you talk to in Nepal, Mandira Sharma, founder of Advocacy Forum-Nepal, is either an enlightened frontrunner of women’s rights, or a strident uber-feminist, who threatens the male-dominated legal system.

 

When I met her for this interview in Budanilakantha, I sensed determination but not stridency. There is will in her voice and a forward-marching compactness to her thought process, but her timbre is decidedly gentle, as if to suggest that she has been spending as much time consoling women as she has been fighting for their rights.

 

In the event, the detainees' stories that Mandira has brought into public view illustrate a whole sequence of common illegal practices: flaunted habeas corpus, torture, falsified evidence, isolation from families, and lack of information about the right to counsel. For women detainees especially, the abuses are compounded by instances of sexual harassment.

 

In 2001 she founded the Advocacy Forum with other defense lawyers, all committed to securing the rule of law and justice to all Nepalis, regardless of gender.

 

 

 

DUNHAM: Where did you grow up?

 

SHARMA: I was born in the western part of Nepal, the district called Baglung. It was somewhat remote when I grew up. We didn’t have an accessible motor road, which made a huge difference.

 

DUNHAM: Did you come from a farming family?

 

SHARMA: Yes, basically farmers.

 

DUNHAM: How big was your village?

 

SHARMA: Now it is growing, because it has become some kind of urban town. But at that time it was a small village.

 

DUNHAM: Did you have siblings?

 

SHARMA: Yes, I had two brothers and one sister. One brother died at quite an early age.

 

DUNHAM: As a young girl, what were your expectations? What kind of life did you think you would have? Did your parents support you in going to school? Or was marriage their main priority?

SHARMA: The expectations for a girl in my village was to learn how to do household chores and to look after others. Education was OK up to a certain level; up to the eighth grade. People felt that, as a girl, you needed to be literate, but not too educated. It wasn’t necessary for a woman. It was a waste.

 

But we kids were lucky enough in our family. Basically it was my mother who fought within the family to send us to school. Fortunately, all of us had opportunities to continue our educations beyond eighth grade.

 

DUNHAM: Was there a secondary school in your village?

 

SHARMA: Yes, there was, but after we completed our School-Leaving Certificate (SLC), we had to choose the subject for our higher studies. At that point, we didn’t have many options to choose from in the village. For example, I wanted to study medicine at that time. I concentrated on science and math, which were required in order for you to be eligible to go attend science college. But it was not available in the village. And my family was not in a position to send me alone to other towns – Pokhara or Kathmandu.

 

In both cases, the towns were too far away and we had no family members living there, so sending a girl child on her own to another town wasn’t going to happen.

 

DUNHAM: How old were you then?

 

SHARMA: Sixteen. I had no choice but to change my subject. Law. Of course, I was not that happy because law was not something I wanted to pursue. It was my mother who encouraged me to study law, saying that “there are very few female lawyers in this country; may you contribute more.” But I was very upset that I was not able to pursue science. Anyway, I studied law because that was what was available to me.

 

DUNHAM: What about your father? Was he hesitant to see you continue your studies?

 

SHARMA: My father didn’t see that much value in sending girl children to get a higher education. He had seen many women, who even though they were educated, had to spend all their time at home and that is what he use to tell me. He didn’t prevent us from continuing our education but I think in his mind he thought it really wasn’t that necessary. He didn’t encourage us. And I think he was also scared that something might happen to us if we went away to school.

 

DUNHAM: Was it in law school that you first became interested in women’s issues?

 

SHARMA: No, it was before that. Even growing up, I was aware of women’s issues. For example, my older brother: When he completed his SLC, he went to Kathmandu for further studies. Also my other brother [cousin?] was planning to go to school in another town. And I felt there was a restriction on me just because I was a girl. So I had a sense of what discrimination was at an early age. I resented that.

 

But then came along the democratic movement of 1990. There was a big change going on in Nepal at that time, even in my district. I saw many of our teachers being arrested because they were pro-democracy. And even before that, I saw some of my family members being arrested, detained –

 

DUNHAM: On what grounds?

 

SHARMA: On the grounds that they had different political ideologies. At that time, you weren’t supposed to have any other ideology than the ongoing Panchyat [the political system of Nepal in effect from 1962 until 1990, formulated by King Mahendra after overthrowing the democratically elected government and dissolving the parliament in 1960. The political system was a party-less "guided" democracy in which the people could elect their representatives, while real power remained in the hands of the monarch.]

 

DUNHAM: Was you family affiliated with any particular pro-democratic party?

 

SHARMA: At that time, I didn’t really make that distinction. It was either a multi-party system or the Panchyat system. This was prior to 1990.

 

In 1990, I saw that many people in the multi-party democracy movement were being arrested. I was just starting college. I also heard a lot of stories about torture, while people were in detention. At that time, I had not had the opportunity to talk to any of those torture victims, but I was aware of that situation.

 

But within that period, I completed a Certificate Level of the Law. [Proficiency Certificate Level – equivalent, in America, to a high school diploma.] A bachelor’s degree was not available in that village, so, if I wanted to continue my education I had to go to Pokhara or come to Kathmandu.  So it became a family issue once again: How could they send a daughter alone? I was too young, not grown up. There was real tension within the family.

 

 

 

 

 

So that’s why I got married. Because I wanted to pursue my education and my family thought it was safe for them and OK for me to leave the house if I got married.

 

DUNHAM: For you, marriage was your key to freedom.

 

SHARMA: For me, yes.

 

DUNHAM: That’s not always the case.

 

SHARMA: Exactly, but for me, in my case, I really felt a sense of freedom when I got married.

 

DUNHAM: When did you move to Kathmandu?

 

SHARMA: 1991.

 

DUNHAM: And at that time, Kathmandu was a hotbed of political activity.

 

SHARMA: That’s right. And I think the 1990s movement was very successful. There were a lot of political detainees, who were released. And at that time, I joined a group that provided medical treatment for those torture victims who had been released from detention centers.

 

DUNHAM: What was the name of that group?

 

SHARMA: Center for Victims of Torture.

 

DUNHAM: Is it still around?

 

SHARMA: It is still around. There were medical professionals in the group and they provided treatment and my job was to document the stories of the recently released detainees.

 

DUNHAM: Were these people also seeking legal justice?

 

SHARMA: No. At that time, there was no legal framework for seeking justice. The detainees were released and then they were free and that was, at the time, all the justice they were going to get.

 

But what I realized was that torture destroys a person. There were people who I had known prior to torture, for example, who came out of prison with completely different personalities. Not only did the torture destroy the person, but it destroyed the victim’s family as well.

 

That’s when I really developed a determination to help people pursue justice and, hopefully, to prevent those sorts of things from happening in the future. I worked with that group for around ten years. I visited many prisons in Nepal.

 

DUNHAM: In and out of the Kathmandu Valley?

 

SHARMA: Oh yes, I visited more that 40 districts. And I was especially looking at women prisoners. When they got into prison, there was no one to follow up on their cases. They didn’t under stand the court language. I met a lot of women who were tortured into making forced confessions. There were women who had served their sentences and were still in prison for more years than what they were sentenced for. There were women with their young kids in prison. There were a lot of women with psychological problems. There were women who were committing suicide while in prison. And most of the stories were not actually known to anyone. And the stories were never recorded. The plight of these women and how the justice system was dealing with these women was not really discussed.

 

DUNHAM: What about the ostracism factor? Did their families cut them off?

 

SHARMA: Very much so. Not only were the women cut off but their children were ostracized as well. In some villages we found that the children were treated as untouchables because their mothers had committed a crime.

 

DUNHAM: So these women were really alone and on their own.

 

SHARMA: Really alone. We also found that when it came to men in prison, their women were very supportive of them. They would try to help their husbands. They tried to find lawyers. In the meantime, they also maintained their homes and took care of their children. They waited for their husbands to return.

 

DUNHAM: In other words, the male prisoner doesn’t usually have to worry about his children because he knows his family will take care of them.

 

SHARMA: Yes, as apposed to the women. The women are on their own. No support.

 

There was and there still is a huge gender discrimination on this issue.

 

I also worked with Bhutanese refugees, especially women who had just come from Bhutan. They had been forced to leave their country. Many of them were sexually abused. Terrible stories. Torture. So we helped to set up some sort of support group within the camps.

 

DUNHAM: When did you work in these camps?

 

SHARMA: Between 1992 and 1996.

 

DUNHAM: What was your role there?

 

SHARMA: My role was to document the individual cases: to record how they were treated, who did what and when, that sort of thing. And then I would refer the cases to the appropriate service providers: NGOs, medical professionals. And because there was no provision for counseling at that time, we coordinated with a number of groups who could train women. For example, the Bhutanese women didn’t feel comfortable sharing their stories to anyone within their own community, so they were suffering in silence…when in fact there were a lot of the women who were going through the same problems.

 

So we tried to bring all of these women together.

 

DUNHAM: Group therapy?

 

SHARMA: Exactly. They shared their stories with one another. We also assisted them in their medical treatment. Many of them had medical problems.

 

DUNHAM: Since then, what has been your major focus in work?

 

SHARMA: In 1999, I decided to go the U.K. for furthering my studies in law. I got a scholarship for my masters in human rights law. It was at the University of Essex. And that course of study really broadened my horizon. Back in Nepal, I had been working in the field and I had ten years of experience with all kinds of atrocities happening in the country. But somehow I felt that there was a missing link between what we did nationally and what avenues were available on the international level in addressing the victims. How could I use that as a tool to trigger change in my country? These were the kinds of things I questioned and learned about while I was in Essex.

 

And when I came back from Essex, in 2001, I decided to establish a forum, which is now called Advocacy Forum. The idea behind it was to prevent atrocities from happening.

 

Let me explain. When working with victims, it is very important to provide medical treatment, legal counseling, psycho-socio counseling, etc, to those who suffer. Fine. But how do we prevent the atrocities from happening? That was why I wanted to create Advocacy Forum. The main objective of this organization was to go to the police detention centers and to document what really happened there. And because of our presence there, we could prevent the atrocities that were happening. That’s what I planned to do.

 

At that time, however, detention centers were closed to the outside world. The police wouldn’t allow anyone to go in there.

 

A distinction needs to be made here. There are prisons, which are relatively open; you have access to them. But detentions center, where you are sent prior to being move to prisons – and depending on the crime, you could be detained from 25 to 30 days – those are the places and that is the phase where and when people are tortured or ill-treated.

 

And that’s where we wanted to intervene. And it wasn’t just police detention centers. It was also military detention centers. Remember, the 10-year conflict was at its height. There was a state of emergency. People were arrested and detained by the military as well. We had no access to military detention centers, but sometimes, the military would transfer people to the police detention centers, and that’s when we began to hear what was going on within military cells.

 

DUNHAM: But how did you break through and get access to the police detention centers?

 

SHARMA: It was very difficult. But I found a law to help us out. For example, the constitution that we then had said that every accused and detained person had the right to consult a lawyer. So we used that as a constitutional tool to challenge the police. We told them, “You have to ensure that every single detainee has access to a lawyer. Either you ensure it or allow us to provide free legal assistance.”

 

Yes, we were there to provide legal assistance, but at the same time we wanted to see how people were treated there. Still, the police were reluctant to help so we brought a case to the Supreme Court. And that’s how we negotiated our access to the detentions centers.

 

At that time, the legal system was still pretty primitive, I would say. Lawyers, themselves, we’re not prepared to go along with our demands. They thought that a lawyer’s job did not start in the detention centers; their job began only when the case went to court. That’s how the bar association regarded their role.

 

We responded to the lawyers by saying, “No, no, that’s too late if you are only conferring with your client after their case goes to court. The papers and evidence is prepared while the person is in detention. It is a vulnerable period for any detainee. That is the time when a detainee’s access to a lawyer is crucial.”

 

But there was no system like that in place. We were challenged by a number of lawyers, including the bar association, telling us that what we were doing was unethical: “You are reaching out to the client. That is unprofessional because the client is supposed to come to you, seeking your support.” That’s the way the lawyers thought the client-lawyer relationship should be.

 

DUNHAM: Absurd.

 

SHARMA: Yes. So we responded by asking, “How can you believe that a person locked up in detention has the ability to come to you, seeking your help? How can they speak to you if you don’t first reach to them for help?”

 

DUNHAM: Were there any women lawyers at that time?

 

SHARMA: Very few. Very few but they weren’t sympathetic with our view. What we were doing was political work: challenging the police and the state, going out to talk to the detainees, many of whom were political detainees – arrested for supporting the Maoists, or accused of being a terrorist. Yes, there were women lawyers taking cases to court, but I didn’t see any of them supporting our detention issue.

 

Ten years later, I believe that the lawyers’ primitive perception has changed.

 

We were also able, after the Jana Andolan II [the 19-Day Revolution in 2006] to change the constitutional language in the interim constitution. Today, the interim constitution states that all detainees have the right to legal counsel beginning with their arrest.

 

DUNHAM: Important distinction.

 

SHARMA: A very important distinction. So over a period of time, the understanding of the legal community has changed.

 

DUNHAM: What are the biggest challenges you are now facing?

 

SHARMA: One of my biggest strengths is my documentation. This documentation is not just limited to cases of torture. In 2001, during the 10-year conflict up to 2006, we were doing lots of monitoring and documentation of human rights violation cases. I concentrated on the five categories of violations: torture, extra-judicial killings, sexual abuse, disappearances and the use of children in armed forces.

 

Initially, I had an office in Kathmandu, which was later expanded into three other regions. Now my organization is in 16 different districts. We started with just a few people, including some members of my family because we needed all the help we could get. Most people didn’t want to take the risks we were taking. But now we have a big team of lawyers – around 100 people on our team.

 

During the conflict, we documented thousands of cases of torture, hundreds of cases of rape, disappearances, killings – and we were documenting cases on both sides – the state and the armed groups. But what really haunts me, every day, is that despite all the cases that we have documented, despite all the victims who have come to court, despite the activities of the National Human Rights Commission – all of these institutions – not even one case has been prosecuted.

 

DUNHAM: Not one?

 

SHARMA: Not one.

 

 

Even those cases that have occurred since the 10-year conflict, if these crimes were committed by the political ones who are in power, the powerful people always get impunity. The law doesn’t really protect everyone equally. People in Nepal are not equal before the law. There are certain people who are always above the law.

 

Remember, the conflict and everything that followed occurred, in part, because people wanted to be treated equally and wanted the elimination of discrimination. But despite all of the promises, we have not been able to bring those powerful perpetrators of crimes to justice. That bothers me a lot. And this is what my organization is now concentrating on – especially in the case of sexual violence against women, rape of women in detention, rape of women in Maoist camps…we have not been able to make anyone accountable.

 

DUNHAM: Even though the press has been covering it more and more?

 

SHARMA: Yes. Despite the press, there has been no prosecution. It’s not because victims don’t want prosecution, it’s not because activists are not gathering the evidence – it’s because the state protects the criminals, not the victims. That’s where are biggest challenge lies: How can we break that cycle of impunity in Nepal?

 

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For more information about Advocacy Forum-Nepal link:

CLICK HERE

 

 

 

 

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Mikel Dunham’s interview with Gita Upreti: A Nepali Woman who rose through the police ranks and served with the UN peacekeepers in Darfur, Sudan

 

April 11, 2013

 

DUNHAM: The last time we met was in Gorkha, several months after the 2008 elections. That interview covered your life from early childhood to becoming Gorkha’s first female Deputy Police Superintendent. Basically, I’d like to pick up from where that interview left off, because you have done many interesting things since then. [CLICK HERE for First Interview with Gita Upreti.] Where did you go after your transfer from Gorkha?

 

UPRETI: I came back here, to Kathmandu headquarters in the training department. Specifically, I returned to the Women and Children Service Center.

 

DUNHAM: Did you believe that improvements had been made for women, since you left Kathmandu?

 

UPRETI: After the election there was a period of great hope for women. Women were expecting more improvement. They were looking for opportunity. They felt that the door was open. Social awareness of women’s issues, among women, had also improved. They were more aware of their rights. It was really encouraging. 197 women parliamentarians had become members of the CA [Constituent Assembly]. And in the early months after the election, we were all excited. The CA brought forward many issues about women. They talked about social inclusion. They were talking about women representation within the leadership and the decision-making level. The CA even brought a few women into the leadership.

 

Even within the police, they brought a few women into the decision-making level. Based on positive discrimination, they got promoted. 

 

All of that was good. But you know, the continuation of sustainable development is more important. And the continuation of development wasn’t forthcoming. I mean, OK, just having a few women in positions of importance in the CA really didn’t add up to a significant change. That was my personal feeling.

 

DUNHAM: A lot of talk but no action?

 

UPRETI: Yes. It was like the male leaders were saying, “We’ve given you some good positions now don’t interfere – be happy what we have given you.”

 

DUNHAM: And what about the police department?

 

UPRETI: Yes, if you are talking about within the police department, the answer is yes: There were significant changes for the better. When I first worked at the Women and Children Center, the men could and would say, “Hey, you and your women’s rights are talking rubbish.” Now, everybody likes to talk about gender issues, gender-based violence. If the high-ranking officer doesn’t know about the issue, they will look ignorant. So now they think, “I need to talk about gender issues to look professional.” That’s how it is now. It is qualified improvement. But we still have a long way to go.

As I said, when I came back from Gorkha, I was involved with developing training programs. I said, “Why don’t we change the curriculum? The times have changed.”

 

DUNHAM: What specific changes were you advocating?

 

UPRETI: There are three different levels of training curriculum in our department. One is for police constables, one for assistant sub-inspectors and one is for inspectors. I was stationed at the training directorate so I did have access to decision-making. And I advocated a new comprehensive curriculum that talked about how to deal with the female and child victims of gender-based violence, like domestic violence, sexual abuse, child exploitation and juvenile justice.

 

Under my direction, a team was formed to review that curriculum. And finally the issue of women and children was included. And I’m happy to say that that’s now in the curriculum. It’s quite extensive.

 

DUNHAM: What about the number of policewomen? Has it increased in Nepal? Female victims of domestic violence and sexual abuse need to have woman officers to help them. In Gorkha, I remember you talking about how awful it was for victims to have to report their abuse cases to male officers, who did not sympathize, who did not believe and who often made the women feel shame.

 

UPRETI: Yes, at that time, the Women and Children Service Center was not incorporated into the structure of the  police system. But now it is included. Now it is a permanent part of the system. I also trained male officers, which is very important, in order to sensitize them to women’s issues. But to answer your question, out of the entire new recruitment within the police force, 45% of the positions are reserved for various marginalized groups. Within that 45%, 20% are women. That’s the mandate. But when you break it down, still only 9% of the new recruits are women.

 

It’s a big change, but…..

 

DUNHAM: Today, how many women inspectors are in the police force?

 

UPRETI: Not more than twenty. And most of them are in the Kathmandu Valley. We have 75 districts in Nepal. So you can see that women are not properly represented in the higher ranks.

 

DUNHAM: How long were you here in Kathmandu with the Women and Children Service Center??

 

UPRETI: One year. After that, I went to Darfur, Sadan. It was 2009-2010.

 

DUNHAM: You went as a Deputy Superintendent of Police under the umbrella of the United Nations?

 

UPRETI: Yes.

 

DUNHAM: What was it like being a woman officer in Darfur?

 

UPRETI: (Laughing). It was quite a shock in the beginning. I was assigned as a gender officer. We used to conduct “confidence-building patrols”.

 

DUNHAM: What did that mean?

 

UPRETI: Basically, we were there to explain to the locals why we were there as UN police. Later, I got a new job as Reform and Restructuring officer. It was about restructuring or changing what the local police thought about police work.

 

You have to understand: The people of Darfur have fought their whole lives. Even the local police had no idea what real police work was. What does rule of law mean? They didn’t know. What about human rights? They didn’t know. What is community policing? They don’t know. Even, what is investigation? They didn’t know. The local police were in an extremely preliminary stage of development.

 

I was in charge of four branches: human rights, the community policing section, the gender section and coordination and cooperation between the local police and the UN force. It allowed us to have meetings, trainings, conferences, and things like that.

 

DUNHAM: Was it a challenge between the two groups in terms of sharing information with one another?

 

UPRETI: Oh! In the beginning, the people would not talk to you! You are a police officer! They saw the UN police as the enemy. It was as if they thought we were going in there to destroy their entire culture, the religion and the entire system within which they operated in daily life. Live there is ordered around the teachings of the Koran. That is the real law.

 

And it was part of our duty to bridge that gap of understanding – to build trust. Obviously, without trust, you can’t do anything. We were strangers trying not to be strangers.

 

But, again, the most important challenge for us was that Darfur was and is totally under Sharia Law [the moral code and religious law of Islam].

 

 

DUNHAM: A foreign female police officer dealing with Muslims: That must have been doubly or triply challenging.

 

UPRETI: Exactly. Oh my god. I have never had to work so hard to build rapport with other people. I went with my fellow UN police officers to the community so that I could talk to the locals. But the community refused to talk to me because I was a woman. I was embarrassed. At that time, I was the only female officer among the group. And in that group, the men were from many different countries: Nigeria, Ghana, Zambia, Gambia, and Kenya. And they, my fellow officers, hesitated to talk to me, too, because I was a female.

 

But I kept going back to the communities and, eventually, I was able to build some rapport. And after one or two months, it was really nice to work with them. They welcomed me at their training academy. And finally I said, “Can we now conduct some training that you like?” And their answer was, “Well, maybe yes, maybe no. We have to talk the training director.”

 

Another obstacle was that they were very conscious about rank and file. Higher-ranking officers would not talk to lower-ranking officers. It was very rigid. If there was a female officer, they would not speak to you. They were very concerned about protocol. And we had to maintain that protocol.

 

Later, we conduct a human rights training. Also, we spoke about investigation, community policing and gender policing.

 

Eventually, though, we were able to coordinate with them. We were able to form a women’s police network. At every one of those training, we brought with us women police officers. In the beginning, at the academy, they said, “Oh, our women officers are not that interested in having a training.” But we told them to bring in the women anyway. As it turned out, the female officers were so smart and they, the Sudanese policewomen connected with the UN policewomen network quite well. We finally could talk to them informally as well as formally. It was really, really nice at the end.

 

DUNHAM: Did you visit the IDP (Internally Displaced Persons) camps?

 

UPRETI: Oh yes. The women in the camps used to come up to us and feel our arms to see if we were really women. Oh my god, they couldn’t believe that we were female officers. It really excited them. On the other hand, if there were males around they wouldn’t speak to us. Even if you were a male officer with the UN, the men in the IDPs would not allow the women to speak. At first we didn’t understand. When we came, they would go inside and wouldn’t come out.

 

So we told them, “We are females, like you. You can tell us the problems you are having here in the camps.” So we women police officers went in a group, without men, to talk to the women in the camps.

 

And eventually, we made real headway. I was able to train the women in the camps to become community volunteers. They could wear jackets, patrol at night. If something happened they would call us and we would send help to address the problem.

 

DUNHAM: The women were the ones policing the camps?

 

UPRETI: Most of the volunteers were men but there were also a few women volunteers. Still, just having a few women involved was really something.

 

DUNHAM: You were in Sudan for two years?

 

UPRETI: Fourteen months.  I returned to Kathmandu and was posted at headquarters, this time in the legal section, which looks after the code of conduct. Then I got promoted to Superintendent of Police (SP) and became the first woman SP to head a district.

 

DUNHAM: The Kavre District.

 

UPRETI: That’s right.

 

DUNHAM: Just this week in the local papers was a story about several rape cases in Kavre. Is the violence against women in Kavre any greater than cases in other districts, or is it more or less typical of other districts?

 

UPRETI: Kavre is not typical. It has two highways and a higher rate of criminality than most other districts. Also, because of the highways, the criminals use Kavre as a transit point. They can go to Tibet-China to the north using the Araniko highway. And to the south is the Dhulikhel-Sindhuli highway, which leads into the Terai and the Indian Border

 

DUNHAM: When you say transit point, are you talking about the movement of drugs, or sex trafficking or other illegal products?

 

UPRETI: I’m talking about illegal trade in wildlife, red sandalwood, even gold. When I was transferred to Kavre, no one but me believed that gold was being moved through the district. Nobody believed that gold was coming illegally from China. But under my watch, I caught nine kilos of gold, coming from China to Kathmandu. It was an historic seizure that I made.

 

DUNHAM: Was it gold bullion?

 

UPRETI: Yes. And I got into a lot of trouble – a lot of pressure – for capturing that gold…as if I had made a mistake. But my procedure was totally correct, thorough and I was very personally involved in making that arrest and confiscation.

 

DUNHAM: How? How did you go about that?

 

UPRETI: I personally checked hundreds of vehicles on the highway at night, myself. It was very unusual for a Superintendent of Police to go out into the field and do that kind of work. But I did. I got some information that something was coming from China into Nepal. So I stood in the middle of the road at night with my colleagues. A male SP would have just sent someone else to go and check. But I didn’t trust anyone and I said, “I have to go there myself.” I started checking cars at midnight. At the checkpoint, I stopped and searched every car, until I found the car with gold in. The driver was Nepali

 

DUNHAM: I hope the driver is now behind bars.

 

UPRETI: Yes, he must be. But this in Nepal: You never know.

 

DUNHAM: You don’t know where he is?

 

UPRETI: You never know.

 

DUNHAM: Let’s talk about other contraband: the wildlife and the sandalwood. It is going in the opposite direction: from Nepal to China. Right?

 

UPRETI: Right. After I took over in Kavre I was really surprised. It was not just tigers and sandalwood. Everything was going to China. You can’t imagine. Wildlife, human hair, sunakhari [rare orchids] , many kinds of herbs…I confiscated 25 kilos of rare orchids one time!

 

DUNHAM: What about sex trafficking?

 

UPRETI: You would be surprised. You always hear about girls being trafficked to India. But it’s not just India. It’s also in China. Have you heard about it?

 

DUNHAM: Yeh, I’ve heard about it. There’s a big market for girls in China because of the “one-child” policy, which has been in place in China for many years. Since parents can only have one child, they often abort female fetuses until they get a son. So now, many years later, there are all these young men who don’t have any women to marry. When I was working undercover in Cambodia in 2004, raiding brothels that housed under-aged girls, many of those girls were actually on their way to China to be sold to men there. I know all about it. But I didn’t know they were being move through Nepal to China. [For the story of my undercover work in Cambodia, CLICK HERE.

 

UPRETI: I see.

 

DUNHAM: Is Kavre district an origin district or simply a transit district for illegally trafficked girls?

 

UPRETI: Both. Girls do originate from Kavre and Sindhupalchowk districts. Some of the girls come from the Tamang community…not all, but they are certainly an easy target for traffickers. Girls are a very big market in Khasa [Nepali-Tibetan border town just inside the China border.] Once the girls are transported to China, they are not allowed to return to Nepal.

 

DUNHAM: As SP, have you caught traffickers in action in Kavre?

 

UPRETI: No.

 

DUNHAM: What about domestic violence in Kavre?

 

UPRETI: It’s very high – much higher than most other districts. Kavre is developed and adjacent to Kathmandu. The people are educated. The land is fertile. 50% of the vegetables coming to Kathmandu come from Kavre.

 

Still, the domestic violence and suicide rate is very high.

 

DUNHAM: Are the rates going up because there is an actually increase, or is it more a matter of the incidents being reported at a high rate?

 

UPRETI: Exactly. The cases were always there but they weren’t reported…until recently. There was no system or access for women. Now there is a Woman and Children Service Center. Now, there is an actual physical location where women can go to report. That makes a big difference.

 

DUNHAM: Are the women committing suicide in Kavre of reproductive age or does suicide occur in all ages?

 

UPRETI: All ages, even seventy-five-year old women.

 

DUNHAM: What’s the most common way for a woman in Nepal to commit suicide?

 

UPRETI: Poison is the most common and hanging is in second place. Oh my god, when I went to Kavre and saw the data, I was shocked. There were certain villages in which the suicide rate was much higher than in other villages. So I targeted these villages and conducted an awareness campaign. And the communities were so happy when they realized that they had a Women and Children Service Center available to them. They said, “There is someone who will listen to us, now. Instead of people just blaming us for being victims of abuse.”

 

DUNHAM: It’s nice to have a place to go to where you won’t be judged.

 

UPRETI: Yes.

 

DUNHAM: Are there drop-in centers in Kavre, where women will be safe from their abusers?

 

UPRETI: Yes, there are safe houses.

 

DUNHAM: How long are the women allowed to stay there?

 

UPRETI: Initially they can stay for one month and then they can extend it for another fifteen days. But it’s still not enough. The Domestic Violence Act is not a strong enough law to truly protect the women.

 

DUNHAM: Especially if the woman has to leave the safe house after only one month – with no place to go but back to the house where her husband, who beat her in the first place, is waiting for her.

 

UPRETI: Yes, it’s very sad. We all agree that the Domestic Violence Act was a good first step, but it is not enough.

 

DUNHAM: I’ve heard that one of the problems is the judicial system, once the case has been filed. The women go to court, time and again, only to be told that the hearing has been postponed again and again. And eventually the postponements simply wear the women down and they drop the case. The legal system lets them down.

 

UPETRI: Yes, and I’ll give you an example. A nine-year-old girl was raped in Kavre. The case was filed. The police took all the proper statements and followed proper proceedure. Then we sent those documents to the court. But, still that case has not gone to trial.

 

DUNHAM: When was the case filed?

 

UPETRI: Two or three years! Now, she doesn’t understand what has happened to her. When her case finally goes to trial, she will be thirteen or fourteen, and it will be very painful for her. She will be stigmatized. It’s terrible. If her case could have been heard immediately, when she was still nine, it would have been much easier on her. But, no, she’s had to go back to court, time and time again.

 

Think about it! Let’s say that it finally comes to trial after four years, what effect will than have on her? She’ll be fourteen. A teenager! And she’ll have to go through the entire rape incident again. To relive her rape victimization! She will be re-victimized! She might decide that “the rape was my mistake.” And think what it will do to her, as a teenager, to have to expose herself in front of the court. Wouldn’t it have been much easier on her if she had had the trial at nine? By now, all of that would be in the past.

 

DUNHAM: What about incest cases?

 

UPRETI: There are now many more cases reported. Now, the child abuse cases and the resultant punishment of the perpetrator are very high.

 

In terms of punishment, if it is a rape case, the man is sentenced for seven years. But if he rapes a child, the prison term is at least ten years. Maybe the increase in punishment is one of the reasons that child abuse cases have risen.

 

DUNHAM: How long will you remain in Kavre?

 

UPRETI: I retired last week!

 

DUNHAM: No one told me. Wow.

 

UPRETI: I’m now free. After 30 years in the police force, there is compulsory retirement. So now I’m jumping into social work.

 

DUNHAM: Here in the Valley?

 

UPRETI: Yes, probably. I’ll be working in the jail system with the prisoners. I have already registered an NGO.

 

DUNHAM: What made you decide to go into that line of work?

 

UPRETI: As a police chief, I saw the conditions of the prisoners, how they were treated and when they are released, how low their expectations are. Where will they go? The families might blame them, they might blame themselves. If someone is inside a prison for twenty years, where is there family when they finally get out? Who will accept them? Once again, they must face the stigma society places on them.

 

There are already services available inside the prisons. But I don’t believe that their services are adequate.

 

DUNHAM: You will be concentrating on re-habilitation?

 

UPRETI: Well, some of the existing organizations provide skill training, but it is not comprehensive.  You also need counseling on life skills to be able to face the outside world. That’s what I want to concentrate on.

 

 

 

 

………………………………………………………………………………

 

 

 

 

 

Dunham’s interview with Dr. Arzu Rana Deuba – Nepali parliamentarian, psychologist and women’s rights activist

 

April 4, 2013

 

Few women, who were selected to be in Nepal’s Constituent Assembly (CA), have a more distinctive résumé than Dr. Deuba. She obtained her Ph.D in organizational Psychology from Punjab University, India. She is the President of SAATHI, a non-governmental organization working in the area of violence against girls and women in Nepal. She is the Executive Director of SAMANTA Institute for Social and Gender Issues, a non-governmental organization working mainly in research and training on multi-sectored issues pertaining to gender. She is also the founder and chairperson of Rural Women's Development and Unity Centre, which has established a low-risk birthing center in far-western Nepal. She is also married to ex-Prime Minister and leader of Nepali Congress Party, Sher Bahadur Deuba.

 

Ultimately, the Constituent Assembly failed in its mandate to pen a new constitution. It has been disbanded indefinitely, until new elections are held. And no one seems to know when that will be, although next November is the current (some say overly optimistic) date being bandied about by political leaders.

 

Yesterday I visited her home to find out what it had been like to be in Nepal’s political arena at this historical juncture – particularly since this was the first time that women, in significant numbers, had been part of the decision-making.

 

 

 

DUNHAM: How well represented were women in the Constituent Assembly?

 

DEUBA: The 2007 interim constitution of Nepal had a clause for women’s equality. Clause number twenty. And it stated that there had to be 33% women in the parliament. That clause was also reaffirmed by a clause in the election. So that’s how, all of a sudden, from less than 5% women in the parliament, it shot up to 32.89%. We almost met the 33% quota. And it was representative of caste, ethnicity, and language –proportional representation. That’s how I got in: as a Chhetri woman from far western Nepal. If that clause had not been in place, we would not have had so many women represented in the last CA.

 

DUNHAM: Was there camaraderie among the elected women that bridged the different party lines?

 

DEUBA: Oh yes. A lot of it. And the main leaders of the parties – all male -- were not very happy with it. It was very strange, you know, that despite of all their so-called commitments to women’s issues and empowerment, we were not allowed to formally form a woman’s caucus. There was a caucus, per se, after a lot of lobbying, but it was not like a full-fledged women’s caucus should have been. They did not give us the high level of support required to run a caucus.

 

And their logic was that, if you had a women’s caucus, then you would have a caste caucus, a language group caucus – that sort of logic. In any case, it took more than a year, almost two years to get that caucus running because the male leaders dragged their feet.

 

In the beginning, we women were put into different committees to draft the constitution. I was in the committee to look at how the federal system would work. Within that group, we had to do a lot of separation of rights: what the central government and what the state government would do respectively. And despite coming from all different parties, (and even parties that had daggers drawn during the conflict), all the women had similar views about how women in Nepal should be treated and what their status should be.

 

So we had a lot of camaraderie and sisterhood. We learned a lot from each other. And I think the women were very serious about what they wanted to do. That was the good part.

 

DUNHAM: The bad part?

 

DEUBA: The bad part was that all the parties, whether it was the UCPN Maoists, the Nepali Congress, the UML –all the party leaders tried their best – and I think succeeded – in minimizing women’s leadership. For me, my stint in parliament was one of the most disempowering phases of my life.

 

DUNHAM: Why?

 

DEUBA: Part of the fault is my own. But part of it was how the political system in Nepal is set up.

When I went in as a parliamentarian, I was a novice.  In my personal life, I have always fought or worked hard to get where I have reached. That’s the way I am. But when I became a member of the proportional list, I felt a bit uncomfortable. I felt like I had come in from a backdoor entry. And I was burdened by the feeling, though I could see a lot of men in parliament, in the same situation, were not burdened at all.

 

Also, we women didn’t know quite how to behave. The men would act very important and they would be backslapping and laughing and they looked like they knew everything about politics. On the other hand, we women were a bit hesitant to express ourselves. By training I am a psychologist: I saw that our behavior in the parliament was very different from the men’s behavior.

 

DUNHAM: You were witnessing up close the “good old boys” club?

 

DEUBA: Oh yes. Definitely. Definitely. And even then, I gathered strength to go and hear what they would talk about. Because they all looked like they were doing very important things. All of them would come into the well of the hall and they would be talking and looking very important. But I was determined to hear what they were saying. I thought, “Maybe they are discussing something important and I’ll pick up some pointers.” So I went up to their huddle. And I listened. And it was really funny. They were discussing, “Where did you buy your waistcoat? Oh, your topi [traditional Nepali male cap] looks really nice.”

 

And I thought, oh god, look at men: They make petty things look like they are doing something important. And it was a real lesson for me. Because, in all of my other working spheres, I work with men too. But in those other situations, it is a pretty equal situation between men and women: whether academic, research or development field. We men and women mostly treat each other equally. Men always respected me for my achievements, or my education, or whatever.

 

But in the CA, despite my very public image, the men in politics regarded me as just my husband’s wife -- a senior leader’s wife. That’s why she’s there, that sort of thing. I could read their minds. They regarded the other women in the same manner. They would try to minimize our importance. They would never ask us to participate in any important debate.

 

I tried, in the beginning, to raise my voice. I would go to the chief whip and I would say, “I want to make a statement on this issue.” And he would give me an expression as if to say, “What do you know about it?”

 

And I’m sure I was better read than most of the men in the room. But only the senior leaders of the parties would be given time to speak. And much to my horror and to the horror of many women, we realized you have to tow the whip’s line. You can’t just speak out of turn. The whip has to write a letter and give it to the speaker and then you are allowed to speak.

 

But this whip [presumably Laxman Prasad Ghimiri] was such a sexist; he thought we women were invisible.

 

And I remember an incident, and I’ve written many times about it: I went over to the whip and I wanted to talk on one issue about carteling of transporters. And he told me, “There are so many women who are already going to speak.” And that day there were some protests in town about violence against women. So a lot of women had already written their names to speak about the violence. But I was not going to speak about that issue. I was going to talk about carteling of transporters. So I told the whip that I wanted to speak about another issue of public interest.

 

And do you know what he told me? Something I thought I would never hear in my entire life. He told me, “Aren’t you happy to be seen? Do you need to be heard?”

 

DUNHAM: Wow.

 

DEUBA: I was flabbergasted. I’ve always been encouraged to voice an opinion. And I remember: I just turned around and went and sat in my chair. And I thought, “What did he just say to me?”

 

But it really got me thinking about the attitude of men toward women. I think the whip did it completely unconsciously. And I thought, “If he can say that to me, what must he be thinking about the ordinary women in Nepal?” In his mind, we are nothing. We are just objects. Of all the things that mark your life, this was a mark that I will never forget. It was a revelation.

 

We thought that we were representing other women in Nepali Congress, but look what was happening to us by our own whip! And I think a lot of women had this feeling. The party got us there but they did not let us play any role.

 

DUNHAM: Were there no women in leadership roles?

 

DEUBA: The leaders allowed one or two women to be heads of committees, but they also were minimized. For instance, in parliament, I was in the committee for natural resource management and we had this very capable young woman from Dang. Her name is Shanti Chhaudhary. She was the head of the committee. But she was just manipulated by all these powerful men. She was not allowed to take any lead. They would be telling her, “Say this, do this, this should be our agenda.” And she would just follow their lead.

 

I became really disgusted. This was not what I wanted to do.

 

And the key agendas that women wanted to follow, like the citizenship rights, the men ganged up together: They would tell us they would do it, but in the end, none of them delivered. We wanted equal rights on citizenship, from every aspect.

 

One of the contentious aspects of our citizenship law is that if a Nepali girl marries a foreign man, he is not granted the same rights as if a Nepali man marries a foreign woman. We were against that inequality. The men in parliament turned our argument around and they made it look like we were trying to discriminate against daughter-in-laws, who come from other countries. So what we said was, “We are not trying to alienate daughter-in-laws; we want equal treatment for our son-in-laws as well. Our daughters should have the same rights as our sons should have.”

 

But the men played tricks within the women inside the parliament. Women parliamentarians, who had been married from India into Nepal – they all became ministers – and the men went around saying to them, “See all these Nepali women parliamentarians from the hills? They are trying to make you unequal citizens.” That’s not what we were trying to do. We were demanding equal rights for men and women.

 

The men’s contention was that, “Ours is a patriarchal society. Daughters are supposed to be given away.”

 

And we said, “That’s why we are writing a new constitution! Why? Because we don’t believe in that patriarchal society!” In the end, we talked to Prachanda, Sushil Koirala, Jhalanath Khanal, Madhav Nepal – all the leaders from all the parties. And they all said, “Yes, yes, yes.” And in the end, they passed an unequal law.

 

We were very angry about that. Even in this upcoming CA, that’s going to be one of our key agendas.

 

We looked at the laws of other countries. When you look at India, which is the world’s biggest democracy, you have to stay in India for five years –whether you are a daughter-in-law or a son-in-law – and then you are awarded citizenship. Why shouldn’t it be the same law in Nepal? Also, in the United States, you have to stay for a certain number of years – but it is equal for sons and daughters.

 

And the other point that we feel very uncomfortable about with is this: A woman who marries a foreigner is not allowed to give her Nepali citizenship to her children. That is not fair.

 

DUNHAM: Nepali citizenship can only go be passed down through the father.

 

DEUBA: That’s right. There has already been an edict from the Supreme Court saying that Nepali women have the right to pass down their citizenship through their offspring.

But even the parliamentarians of the very young generation, in the last CA, were not ready to change the law. They kept referring to the children of the girls as “nephews and nieces” and the children of the boys as “sons and daughters”.

 

The men were making a distinction that compromised my full rights. So, you see, those sorts of very patriarchal attitudes still prevail today in Nepal.

 

When we have the new elections, this is one of the issues we are going to have to address.

 

DUNHAM: What would you guess was the median age of the male parliamentarians?

 

DEUBA: 55? 56? The women were much younger by comparison – between 35 and 40 – especially from the Maoist side. There were the youngest.

 

DUNHAM: Were the Maoist women vociferous?

 

DEUBA: No, they were the least vociferous. It was very interesting to watch. They were totally brainwashed about ideology and strictly voted the party line. They were not allowed to voice any individual thought. Those who did voice an individual though were punished. They dared not differ from the other party cadres. That we could see.

 

DUNHAM: What about the education level of the female parliamentarians?

 

DEUBA: Very low. I think there were very few who had even completed high school. I think I and another woman – a professor -- were the only ones who had a Ph.D. There were a few women with masters in Nepali Congress – two or three. Not that the degrees mattered. We women were all treated as equally ignorant.

 

The original idea, of course, was to create a parliament that was inclusive. There was a lot of reaching out to women from marginalized communities. So some of them were totally illiterate, because they had never had the chance. But again, the education of the women didn’t matter. We were all treated like cattle.

 

DUNHAM: What about the issue of violence against women? Was it properly addressed in parliament?

 

DEUBA: I think one of the best things that happened in parliament was the passing of the domestic violence bill in 2009. Actually, my organization, SAATHI, we created the first bill on domestic violence in 2002. But somehow after that, we had a lot of ups and downs and that bill never took off really. It was just tabled and that was it. The 2009 bill, which was passed, was one of the best things we did for the women in Nepal. The rules and regulations have been completed now, but still there is a lot of work to be done. The traditional attitude of domestic violence -- “it’s a family affair” – has not changed that much.

 

The other positive thing that we initiated in the past parliament was a committee formed in the prime minister’s office: the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Violence Against Women. Seventeen secretaries of ministries participated in the committee. The prime minister chaired it. The Chief Secretary coordinated it and me and two other parliamentarians were advisors on that committee. Some headway was made. At least the government took it on as an issue. And the committee made a plan of action on what they would do to counterbalance violence against women. Some stressed awareness; some suggested a one-stop drop-in shelter for women victims of violence. A place where you could go and file your complaint and then be given all the services like medical, legal, police, whatever. It was a good start in the right direction. But even so, as an advisor, I was not very happy with it because it just became ritualistic.

 

DUNHAM: How do you mean “ritualistic?”

 

DEUBA: The committee members would just come and discuss and then…look…I worked in this sector for a long time. We would give them advice, like the open women’s shelters, which was good. But then it was decided that a victim could only stay in a shelter for three weeks. You weren’t allowed to bring in your children.

 

I objected and said, “How can you have women coming in without their children? And how can you tell a woman that she can only stay for three weeks at the end of which her only option is to return to the husband who beats her up?” But the men would not listen to things like this. And the standards of the shelters were not very good. The drop-in shelters did not have enough counseling facilities.

 

There was a lot of discussion with the Ministry of Home. Policewomen deal with the violence against women cases. But there are examples of abuse against the policewomen and in some instances they didn’t even have their own restrooms. So how were these women going to adequately deal with the rights of other women?

 

And, for me, here’s the straw that broke the camel’s back: There was this case where an officer of the migration department and a policeman raped a migrant worker on her way back to her home in Nepal. The government never said anything about it. We gave the story to the papers, we contacted the government but the committee didn’t want to call a meeting. So I resigned. I didn’t want my name associated with a committee that doesn’t do anything. As for those two men, I think they were allowed to leave the country.

 

So what I am saying is that changes for the better have been made but we haven’t done nearly enough.

 

The legal system to protect women is particularly deficient. I did a study in 2004 on rape, incest and polygamy and – at least in the case of rape – most of the complainers would withdraw the case after a while. The women would become fed up with going to court and never having a hearing; the investigators don’t hand over the reports and, finally, it just becomes a big hassle in the women’s lives.

 

DUNHAM: And one has to wonder how many of the cases are actually reported because of the stigma attached to being raped.

 

DEUBA: Exactly. And we found out that even in the cases where there is family support for the victim – or survivor in some cases -- the family, itself, is exorcized by the larger community. In our society, the general feeling is that this awful thing should just be kept quiet. There’s a tremendous amount of shame involved brought on by ancient conventional thinking.

 

The damage done to women in Nepal because of their lower station in ife, as reflected in data, is very telling. Among women of reproductive age – between 15 and 45 -- the highest cause of death is now suicide. Young women in Nepal are using suicide as a coping strategy, in far greater numbers than in most other countries.

 

DUNHAM: If you are a member of the next CA, what, as a woman, will you do differently?

 

DEUBA: I’ll be more assertive. And I’m not going to go away. And I will tell the men, “You may not like me, but I’m a parliamentarian just like you and I’m not going to go away.”

 

 

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World Organisation Against Torture condemns Maoists’ human rights violations in Nepal

 

 

March 8, 2013

 

URGENT APPEAL – HOW YOU CAN HELP

 

 

The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint programme of the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), requests your urgent intervention on the following situation in Nepal.

 

The World Organisation Against Torture (Organisation Mondiale Contre la Torture, OMCT) is the world’s largest coalition of non-governmental organisations fighting against arbitrary detention, torture, summary and extrajudicial executions, forced disappearances and other forms of violence. The global network consists of almost 300 local, national and regional organisations, which share the goal of eradicating torture and fostering respect of human rights for all.

 

Brief description of the situation:

 

The Observatory has been informed by reliable sources about the physical assault against Mr. Yadav Prasad Bastola, Executive Director of Human Rights Alliance[1], Central Office, Kathmandu, by four alleged Maoists cadres who beat him with iron rods more than 40 times, accusing him of attempting to jail and prosecute Maoists cadres for human rights violations committed during the conflict period (1996 - 2006) by writing articles and organising programmes on human rights violations and impunity in different parts of Nepal, as well as about threats against several members of Accountability Watch Committee (AWC), namely Ms. Mandira Sharma, Chairperson of Advocacy Forum-Nepal, Mr. Subodh Pyakhurel, Chairperson of the Informal Sector Service Centre (INSEC), Mr. Kanak Mani Dixit, a journalist and editor of Himal magazine and other publications, Mr. Sushil Pyakhurel, Chair of AWC, Mr. Charan Prasai, Coordinator of the Joint Forum for Human Rights, and Mr. Kapil Shrestha, both members of AWC.

 

According to the information received, on February 28, 2013, Mr. Yadav Prasad Bastola was returning home from Birendranagar municipality, Surkhet district, where he had organised a workshop on “Impunity and Post-conflict Justice” on behalf of Human Rights Alliance the day before, when he was seriously assaulted by four unidentified persons at around 7.30 pm in the jungle of Srinagar in Vidhyapur Village Development Committee (VDC)-05, 30 minutes away from his home.

 

Reportedly, two of the men, who had covered their faces with masks and had been following him for some time already, stopped Mr. Yadav Prasad Bastola and asked him if he was a human rights defender. The latter confirmed, and asked them if they needed his support. One of them then said: “Aren't you the person who is trying to jail the Maoists?” The men caught his hands and neck, and were joined by two other unidentified persons. The attackers said: “You write against Maoists and travel different parts of Nepal organising programmes against Maoists. You write accusing us of being involved in human rights violations during the conflict period. You are trying to jail us”. The men hit Mr. Yadav Prasad Bastola four times on his back with iron rods. One also tried to hit him on the head, but Mr. Bastola managed to protect himself with his hands, leaving his left wrist injured. As the men continued beating him with iron rods, he fell on the ground. He tried to protect his head with his hands, bending on his knees and elbows, but the men continued beating him and kicking him with their boots. While beating him they said, “You write against Maoists party to support the Nepali Congress and CPN-UML Parties. We will kill you here”. Luckily, as two motorcycles suddenly came towards the group, the assaulters ran away towards the jungle, and Mr. Yadav Prasad Bastola managed to run towards a nearby village, where villagers called the police. Some villagers and policemen took him to a local hospital in a stretcher, where he received first aid. At around 10 pm the same day, a police van took him to Deuti Nursing Home, Surkhet district, for further treatment. On March 1, 2013, he was discharged from the hospital.

 

On February 27, 2013, a local newspaper, the Pahichan Daily, had published an article written by Mr. Bastola on impunity in an extra-judicial killing of a man from his VDC named Surya Prasad Poudel by Maoists cadres during the conflict period in Nepal. The article had focused on the need to provide compensation to the victim's family members and to investigate thoroughly the conflict era crimes.

 

On March 1, 2013, Mr. Yadav Prasad Bastola filed a First Information Report (FIR) at the District Police Office of Surkhet. According to the police, an investigation is currently in progress. Moreover, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) of Nepal subsequently condemned the serious assault on Mr. Bastola.

 

Furthermore, the Observatory is also concerned by threats that were issued recently through the media against several members of AWC, a forum of leading human rights defenders fighting against impunity in Nepal, by the Maoist mouthpiece magazine Lal Rakshak (Red Defender), the blog Krishnasenonline, and various other local Maoist-affiliated papers and FM radio stations.

 

In the article published in the edition for January-February of Lal Rakshak, Ms. Mandira Sharma, Mr. Subodh Pyakhurel, and Mr. Kanak Mani Dixit were accused of “going against the Maoists, Maoist political agenda and change”. Other defenders named were Mr. Sushil Pyakhurel, Mr. Charan Prasai, and Mr. Kapil Shrestha. They were accused of being traitors, enemies of the people, peace spoilers, and dollar mongerers, among other insults, and the article encouraged that “people's action should be taken against them”[2].

 

This appeal was repeated in a number of local Maoist newspapers, including in Gandaki Awaj published from Pokhara on January 21, 2013 under the headline (translated): "Real face of Kanak, Subodh and Mandira". A newspaper Taja Khabar published from Rupandehi on January 22, 2013 repeated the same story with the headline (translated): "Dollar-mongers search murderers". A similar article was published in an online news portal Onlinekhabar. Furthermore, the appeal for “people’s action” was also broadcasted repeatedly on Maoist FM radio stations around the country. On Krishnasenonline, the main Maoist news portal, Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) - UCPN Spokesperson Agni Sapkota commented that “some NGOs supposedly working for human rights are acting against national interest”. He added that these NGOs “prefer dollars to nation and nationalism” and that “for green dollars, some people have called imperialist Britain to have Colonel Kumar Lama arrested”, naming Ms. Sharma and Advocacy Forum as being responsible for Mr. Lama’s arrest.

 

Those threats indeed come in the context of the arrest of Mr. Kumar Lama, a Nepali army colonel who was charged with torture by the authorities of the United Kingdom on January 4, 2013 under universal jurisdiction law, as well as of five Maoist cadres in Dailekh district, Nepal, who were charged with the torture and murder of Dekendra Raj Thapa, a journalist, in 2004[3]. Members of AWC were instrumental in getting the UK authorities to arrest Mr. Lama as well as in filing the Dailekh case.

 

Actions requested:

 

Please write to the authorities in Nepal, urging them to:

 

i. Guarantee in all circumstances the physical and psychological integrity of Mr. Yadav Prasad Bastola, Ms. Mandira Sharma, Mr. Subodh Pyakhurel, Mr. Kanak Mani Dixit, Mr. Sushil Pyakhurel, Mr. Charan Prasai and Mr. Kapil Shrestha as well as of their relatives and all human rights defenders in Nepal;

 

ii. Carry out a thorough, impartial and transparent investigation into the above mentioned facts in order to identify all those responsible, bring them before a competent and impartial tribunal and apply to them the sanctions provided by the law;

 

iii. Put an end to any act of harassment against Mr. Yadav Prasad Bastola, Ms. Mandira Sharma, Mr. Subodh Pyakhurel, Mr. Kanak Mani Dixit, Mr. Sushil Pyakhurel, Mr. Charan Prasai and Mr. Kapil Shrestha, and all human rights defenders in Nepal, and ensure in all circumstances that they are able to carry out their legitimate activities without any hindrance and fear of reprisals;

 

iv. Conform with the provisions of the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations on December 9, 1998, especially its Article 1, which states that “everyone has the right, individually and in association with others, to promote and to strive for the protection and realisation of human rights and fundamental freedoms at the national and international levels”, and Article 12.2, which provides that “the State shall take all necessary measures to ensure the protection by the competent authorities of everyone, individually and in association with others, against any violence, threats, retaliation, de facto or de jure adverse discrimination, pressure or any other arbitrary action as a consequence of his or her legitimate exercise of the rights referred to in the present Declaration”;

 

v. Ensure in all circumstances respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms in accordance with international human rights standards and international instruments ratified by Nepal.

 

Addresses:

 

·      Prime Minister, Dr. Baburam Bhattarai, Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Nepal, Singha Darbar, Kathmandu, Nepal. Fax: + 977-1-4211286, Email: [email protected]

·      Inspector General of Police, Mr. Kuber Singh Rana, Police Head Quarters, Naxal, Kathmandu, Nepal, PO. Box No.: 407. Fax: + 977 1 4 415 593, Email: [email protected] / [email protected]

·      Attorney General, Mr. Mukti Nath Pradhan, Office of Attorney General Ramshahpath, Kathmandu, Nepal. Fax: + 977 1 4262582 / 4218051, Email: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

·      Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission, Mr. Kedar Nath Uppadhya, Pulchowck, Lalitpur, Nepal. Fax: + 977 1 5547973. Email: [email protected]; [email protected] 

·      H.E. Mr. Shanker Das Bairagi, Ambassador, Permanent Mission of the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal to the United Nations Office in Geneva, 81 rue de la Servette, 1201 Geneva, Switzerland, Fax: + 41 22 733 27 22, E-mail: [email protected]

·      H.E. Mr Ram Mani Pokharek, Ambassador, Embassy of Nepal in Brussels, Avenue Brugmann 210, 1050 Brussels, Belgium. Fax : + 32 2 344 13 61. E-mail: [email protected]

 

Please also write to the diplomatic mission or embassy of Nepal in your respective country.

 

***

Geneva-Paris, March 6, 2013

 

Kindly inform us of any action undertaken quoting the code of this appeal in your reply.

 

The Observatory, a OMCT and FIDH venture, is dedicated to the protection of Human Rights Defenders and aims to offer them concrete support in their time of need.

 

To contact the Observatory, call the emergency line:

·          E-mail: [email protected]

·          Tel and fax OMCT + 41 (0) 22 809 49 39 / + 41 22 809 49 29

·          Tel and fax FIDH + 33 (0) 1 43 55 25 18 / +33 1 43 55 18 80

 

[1] The National Alliance for Human Rights and Social Justice - Nepal (Human Rights Alliance) is a Coalition of Nepali non-governmental human rights organisations dedicated to a cause of freedom, human rights, social justice, and peace in Nepal that was established in 1996.

[2] “People’s action” is a term that was used during the 10-year-long Maoist “people’s war” which ended in 2006. It denotes punishment to be meted out through direct action, i.e. through violent attacks.

[3] For more information on the case, see OMCT Urgent Appeal NPL 140113 issued on January 14, 2013:

Properties

Date: March 6, 2013

Activity: Human Rights Defenders

Type: Urgent Interventions

Country: Nepal

OMCT International Secretariat

PO Box 21, 8, rue du Vieux-Billard, CH-1211 Geneva 8, Switzerland

Phone: + 41 22 809 4939

Fax: + 41 22 809 4929

E-mail: [email protected]

 

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Tibetan protester sets himself on fire in Nepal's capital in protest against China

 

February 14, 2012

 

JIM YARDLEY of the New York Times filed this report:

 

 

Feb. 13, 2013 – A Tibetan man walked onto a street Wednesday morning in Katmandu, the capital of Nepal, poured gasoline over his body and set himself on fire. Engulfed in flames, and writhing in pain, the monk became the latest Tibetan to self-immolate as part of a protest campaign against Chinese rule in Tibet.

 

In Nepal, a small Himalayan nation that is home to thousands of Tibetan exiles, authorities said the monk was hospitalized in critical condition. Witnesses told The Associated Press that the man, who was dressed in the robes of a Buddhist monk, shouted slogans against China before falling to the ground, as others quickly put out the flames and called for help.

 

Photographs showed Nepalese security officers arriving as the protester stood in the middle of the street, his body consumed by flames and black smoke.

 

This latest self-immolation comes at a wrenching moment for Tibetans inside and outside China. Desperate to focus global attention on political and religious repression inside Tibet, yet barred by Chinese authorities from holding any political protests there, a growing number of young Tibetan men and women have set themselves on fire during the last three years.

 

The protest campaign is now approaching the grim milestone of 100 self-immolations in Tibetan areas of China: Exiled Tibetan political leaders in India, as well as the advocacy group, Save Tibet, have documented 99 such incidents inside China since February 2009. A handful of Tibetans outside Tibet also have self-immolated, including a man who set himself afire in March 2012 during a pro-Tibet protest in New Delhi. His image, captured by a news photographer, ricocheted around the world.

 

The protester in Nepal has not yet been identified but he timed his self-immolation to coincide with the important Tibetan festival of Losar, the Tibetan New Year, during which the government in exile has asked Tibetans not to celebrate in solidarity with Tibetans still in Tibet.

 

The protester set himself on fire near a major Buddhist stupa, or religious structure, that is located in the Boudhanath section of Katmandu, where many Tibetan exiles live.

 

A waiter at the Golden Eye Café told The Associated Press that the Tibetan man used the bathroom in the restaurant before stepping outside onto the street. Later, the waiter found a bottle of gasoline and clothing in the bathroom.

 

“He looked like the hundreds of Tibetans who came to Boudhanath today and I did not suspect he was going to set himself on fire,” the waiter, Prasant Tamang, said.

 

The Chinese government has condemned the self-immolations as criminal acts and has been waging a police crackdown. Last week, Chinese state media reported that at least 70 people had been arrested or detained in a Tibetan region of the province of Qinghai and accused of inciting others to self-immolate. Last Friday, a Chinese court sentenced a Tibetan man to 13 years in prison on similar charges.

 

Lobsang Sangay, the prime minister of the Tibetan government in exile, expressed sadness about the self-immolation in Nepal and said his administration has asked Tibetans not to take drastic actions, including self-immolation. But he also placed the blame for such acts on the Chinese government.

 

"The occupation of Tibet and repression of Tibetans are the primary reason for the self-immolations inside Tibet," Mr. Sangay said by email on Wednesday, while he was visiting the United States. "The solution to the tragedy in Tibet lies with Beijing and my administration is fully committed to dialogue and to address the issue peacefully."

 

For decades, Chinese leaders have vilified the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, and the country’s state-run media have recently been blaming him for orchestrating the self-immolations. Tibetans have dismissed such claims as blatant propaganda and argued that the self-immolations are the result of repressive Chinese policies that have sharply restructured political and religious rights in Tibetan areas.

 

“Why do the Tibetans burn themselves?” asked Penpa Tsering, speaker of the exiled Tibetan Parliament, which is based in Dharamsala, India, in a speech earlier this month. “Political freedom in Tibet is nonexistent.”

 

Nepal is pinched between China and India and for decades as served as way station for Tibetans escaping from Chinese rule. In recent years, Chinese leaders have pressured Nepal’s government to choke off this flow of refugees and to also limit political protests by Tibetans living in Nepal.

 

 

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Maoist YCL thugs beat up at least a dozen journalists and political opponents

 

January 31, 2013

 

At least 13 people, including six journalists, were injured in Banepa of Kavre district yesterday after a clash flared up between activists of the Young Communist League (YCL) and opposition parties. The YCL is the youth wing of the Maoists and have often been cited for violence in the past.

 

The clash ensued after YCL hoodlums, many armed with lathis and stones and bussed in from neighboring villages and districts by the Maoists, attacked journalists and activists of non-Maoist parties who had converged on Banepa to protest alleged misuse of state coffers by Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai. Bhattarai was slated to a attend a Maoist district conference, which was to be held later that day.

 

According to Himalayan:

 

YCL men first hit Prakash Sundas, news coordinator of Radio Namobuddha, on his face before tearing his clothes into pieces and then fell upon Krishnachandra Banjara, a reporter for Abhiyan daily, [who was beaten] with rods because Banjara was wearing a black jacket. Bhola Thapa of Nepal Television, Ramkrishna Chapagain of Nepal Samacharpatra daily and Motilal Timalsina, executive editor of Chesta Weekly, were also injured in the clash. Grace FM’s Krishna Neupane, who was injured after YCL cadres beat him up, has been sent to Kathmandu for treatment.

 

YCL cadres forced Rajdhani daily reporter Keshavraj Poudel, Mountain TV correspondent Kapil Koirala and Kantipur daily reporter Manoj Basnet to delete photos from their cameras and threatened them with death ‘if they dispatched news against them’.

 

YCL activists also detained and beat up Basudev Sapkota of Anaikot. Seriously injured Sapkota has received bruises all over his body and is undergoing treatment in Banepa.

 

Nepali Congress Mahasamiti member Kunsang Lama of Khanalthok lost three teeth, while 63-year-old Homnath Adhikari of Rabiopi was wounded. NC Anaikot VDC unit president Ganesh KC, who received a major injury on his head with a stone, has been sent to the Capital for treatment. Other injured include CPN-UML district committee member Indra Bahadur Tamang of Sarsyukharka, UML area committee member Lila Bahadur Ghimire of Nala and Rupak Mahat of Panauti.

 

 

According to Republica, the approximately 700 YCL cadres were strategically dispersed along the road leading to the Maoist program venue. The peaceful demonstration, organized by opposition parties, which had planned to greet the prime minister’s motorcade with black flags, was foiled by the YCL attack. The violence occurred before the PM actually arrived.

 

It was also reported that YCL cadres issued death threats. According to Kantipur, “YCL threatened to 'finish off' Kantipur district correspondent Manoj Basnet. ‘Kantipur is on a mission to eliminate the UCPN (Maoist). We will not spare them and finish them off,’ YCL cadres vented their ire. “

 

After the incident, the Federation of Nepali Journalists (FNJ) condemned the attack on journalists and threats and promised to boycott all UCPN-Maoist events until the YCL assailants are detained by the police.

 

Similarly, the CPN-UML and NC parties have condemned the YCL attack on a peaceful demonstration and on the injured journalists.

 

 

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22 journalists flee Western Nepal after Maoists cadres issue death threats

 

January 29, 2013

 

Last week, Reporters Without Borders condemned death threats made by cadres of the ruling Unified Communist Party of Nepal (UCPN) on January 23 against 22 journalists in the western district of Dailekh. The next day, the 22 local reporters were forced to leave the district, halting production at two daily newspapers and one weekly. Those behind the threats also ransacked the premises of the daily Hamro Tesro Aankha.

 

“The threats and attacks on media workers are particularly serious since they occurred in response to calls for justice for Dekendra Raj Thapa, a local journalist who was kidnapped and murdered by cadres of the ruling Maoist party,” the press freedom organization said.

 

[See my January 10, 2013 article on the murder case HERE]

 

“We urge the authorities to put an end to such threats and guarantee journalists the basic right to work in safety.

 

“The decision by the government to halt the investigation into Thapa’s murder is at odds with Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai’s statement to journalists at the 43rd annual meeting of the Press Council when he reaffirmed his commitment to freedom of the press.

 

“The process of national reconciliation now under way does not mean truth and the fight against impunity should be abandoned.”

 

Party cadres threatened journalists who were protesting during a visit by the prime minister to Dailekh district. The party members publicly warned several journalists they could face the same fate as their colleague Thapa, murdered four years earlier.

 

Other UCPN activists forced their way into the editorial offices of Hamro Tesro Aankha and vandalised the premises. These attacks took place on the sidelines of violence between members of the ruling party and opposition groups who were demonstrating.

 

After a meeting the following day of the Dailekh chapter of the Federation of Nepali Journalists (FNJ), 22 journalists including the chairman of the local FNJ, Pushkar Thapa, and reporters and other staff from the newspapers Nagarik, Republica, Kantipur and Kathmandu Post, the TV station Avenues Television, and local publications and radio stations, concluded that their safety was no longer guaranteed and they should leave the district.

 

Their departure forced the dailies Dhamaka et Hamro Tesro Aankha and the weekly Sajha Pratibimba to halt production indefinitely, while the radio stations Dhruba Tara and Panchakoshi FM stopped broadcasting.

 

A few days earlier, on 12 January, Prime Minister Bhattarai defended the government’s decision to call off the investigation into Thapa’s murder, saying not all war-era cases could be investigated.

 

Referring to the ongoing investigation into the involvement of five Maoist cadres in the murder, Bhattarai said that, if all the cases were investigated separately, the ongoing peace process would be derailed.

 

 

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Fearing arrest for human rights violations, Nepal’s Attorney General postpones US visit

 

January 15, 2013

 

On Sunday, Mukti Pradhan, Nepal’s attorney general, cancelled a scheduled visit to the US, apparently out of fear.

 

Following the arrest of Nepal Army Col. Kumar Lama by the British police earlier this month – who was seized in the UK over his alleged human rights violations during the decade-long Maoist insurgency – the Maoist-led government seems to be taking precautions to protect its own from the international justice system.

 

The attorney general has been widely criticized in Nepal and abroad for exerting undue influence to stop prosecution of five Maoist workers charged with the 2004 killing of Dailekh-based journalist Dekendra Thapa. One of the named assailants confessed last week, saying that he and his henchmen had brutally beaten Thapa and ultimately buried him alive.

 

(See my article on the Dekendra Thapa case here.)

 

Nepal’s Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai publicly criticized the arrest of his fellow party members for the crime.

 

Then, on January 9, the attorney general added further pressure to impede justice by personally blasting the District Public Prosecutor, Dambar Prasad Kafle, for having had the five men arrested in the first place. After “hurled abuses”, Pradhan threatened to fire Kafle if he did not change the confessional statement of the accused. [This is according the EKantipur, which quoted anonymous sources from the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) in a Jan. 11 article]:

 

“The Attorney General has abused the District Prosecutor and threatened to finish off three of his generations,” said a senior official at the OAG, requesting anonymity.

 

Sources further said that Pradhan also mounted pressure on the chief of the Surkhet Appellate Public Prosecutor Office, Man Bahadur Karki, “to not allow the case to move ahead.”

 

The OAG official also said that Pradhan is planning to transfer both Kafle and Karki “to influence the case.”

 

According to sources, Pradhan called Kafle again on Thursday and “coaxed” him by offering a “lucrative transfer and a foreign trip.”

 

“Pradhan on Thursday dictated (to Kafle) a draft of the statement to be recorded for the accused,” the source said.

 

Pradhan was scheduled to fly to the US on Jan. 13. He had been invited to speak at the University of New Haven in Boston.

 

Ironically, the college had invited Pradhan for a nine-day program on “strengthening the criminal justice system in Nepal.”

 

 

Pradhan received his a US visa on last Saturday, the day before his departure.

 

What changed his traveling plans?

 

According to the Kathmandu Post:

 

“A US Embassy official took a brief interview of the attorney general (AG) before issuing him a visa, which is rare,” an official said. “That probably sowed seeds of doubt in the AG’s mind. That seemed to have led him to call off the visit, perhaps anxious to avoid Col Lama’s fate in the UK.”

 

“Following the cancellation of the US trip, the AG remained tight-lipped about what made him do that,” said an official at the AG’s office. “He appeared tensed all day today, cancelled all his in-house meetings and kept to himself,” said another official at the office.

 

Sources said that when Pradhan reached office on Sunday, officials there warned him that he could meet the same fate as Col Lama. Worse, he could also be greeted with black flags upon reaching the US.

 

Earlier in the day, the NHRC summoned Pradhan and asked him why he was obstructing new investigations into Thapa’s murder and why he had ordered his local-level officials to halt recording statements.

 

Meanwhile, journalists in Pradhan’s home, Dolakha, have decided to boycott all his public functions in the district.

 

“He has abused his authority by ordering to put on hold the investigations into the killing of a fellow journalist. We were happy when he was appointed the AG, but we are now dismayed by his actions,” a statement issued by the Federation of Nepali Journalists, Dolokha, said.

 

According to one of the delegates, who was to fly with Pradhan to Boston, the trip was not cancelled but rather postponed: “He (Pradhan) informed me that we would head for the US on January 22 instead of today (Sunday). He said it was not appropriate to leave the country at a time when there is a political and constitutional crisis.”

 

Really?

 

Is the attorney general suggesting that after January 22, Nepal will no longer be in a political and constitutional crisis?

 

 

 

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Maoists murder a journalist and Nepal’s prime minister attempts to block the thugs' arrests

January 10, 2012

 

On January 8, 2013, Nepali Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai publicly criticized the arrest of five of his party members, who stand accused of the 2004 murder of radio journalist Dekendra Raj Thapa. He blamed human rights activists instead.

 

According to Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) – an independent, nonprofit organization promoting press freedom worldwide – police arrested the five men last week, based on a previous complaint filed by the journalist's wife. Four of them are district-level leaders of the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), which heads Bhattarai's coalition government, and the other is affiliated with the Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist, a breakaway faction of the ruling party, according to news reports.

 

Agence France-Press reported that one of the individuals, Lachhiram Gharti, confessed to taking part in the murder and to burying Dekendra Raj Thapa alive:

 

The arrests of the five men, whose detention came days after a Nepalese soldier was held in Britain on charges of torture, are the first in Nepal for crimes committed during the decade-long conflict that ended in 2006.

 

The five men, all middle-ranking cadres, have been charged with the abduction and murder of Dekendra Raj Thapa, a radio reporter and human rights activist who died in 2004.

 

Lachhiram Gharti, one of the accused, had confessed to taking part in the murder, Binod Sharma, an inspector in the western district of Dailekh, told AFP.

 

"He confessed to us that they kidnapped (the victim) under the pretext of a discussion on water supply and took him to a local school," Sharma said.

 

"They tortured him by repeatedly beating him and when he fell unconscious, he was brought to Gharti's home.

 

"Gharti told us that he gave a glass of water to him. After drinking it, he again fell unconscious... so they dug a pit and buried him alive."

 

 

 

The men are being held in the small western district of Dailekh while police investigate. It is still unclear whether formal charges have been filed against them.

 

Bhattarai said two days ago that the government did not endorse the arrests and that they were part of a plot by human rights activists to derail the peace process by reviving cases from the conflict period. Although the armed conflict in Nepal between Maoists and the government ended in 2006, the political climate remains precarious: There has been no parliament since it was dissolved in May 2012 and the opposition has been pressing Bhattarai's caretaker government for elections.

 

 

Both political parties--the UCPN (Maoist) and the CPN-Maoist--also issued statements asserting the men's innocence, news reports said.

 

"The pressure being exerted by Prime Minister Bhattarai and the parties illustrates the problem of impunity in Nepal, where political interference has prevented justice from being served in the murders of journalists," said Bob Dietz, CPJ's Asia program coordinator. "Police should be able to continue with their work of bringing killers to justice without being subjected to political pressure."

 

CPJ has repeatedly called on authorities in Nepal to ensure killers of journalists are prosecuted as a means to redress wrongs. The country ranks sixth on CPJ's Impunity Index, which tallies countries that consistently fail to prosecute journalist murders.

 

 

For more data and analysis on the precarious situation for Nepali journalists, as reported by CPJ, click here:

 

Committee to Protect Journalists' Assessment of Nepal

 

 

 

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Al Jazeera Video: Rallies Against Rape in Nepal

January 3, 2013

 

Nepalis are rallying for the safety of women after nationwide protests in India.There have been days of protests inKathmandu, with demonstrators accusing the government of failing to act and protecting the guilty. Al Jazeera's Subina Shrestha reports from Kathmandu.

 

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Asian Human Right Commission's Report on the erosion of democratic institutions in NEPAL

December 11, 2012

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A 30-page annual report issued by the Asian Human Rights Commission  (Dec. 10, 2012) illustrates to what extent the slow erosion of democratic institutions in Nepal has hampered accountability.

 

Below are the highlights:

 

Building democratic and inclusive institutions allowing the participation of all in the decision-making process has been one of the main challenges that Nepal has tried to meet since the end of the conflict.

 

The dissolution of the Constituent Assembly without producing a new constitution on May 28, opening a new area of political uncertainty, has once more put human rights issues on the backburner. Police torture remained a major concern through the year and victims seeking redress faced threats and attacks without benefiting from the protection of institutional actors. Very few concrete achievements were made to ensure that victims of human rights violations, including victims of caste-motivated and gender-motivated violence, had access to legal redress, without concerns for their safety. Nor was any progress made in the investigation and prosecutions of human rights violations cases dating from the conflict. Instead 2012 has seen considerable suggestions from higher ranking political circles that transitional justice mechanisms should be used to foster "reconciliation" – a euphemism for amnesty, over "justice".

 

This failure to improve Nepal's human rights record in 2012 not only underlines the government negligence toward the protection of human rights of the people it serves but more importantly points at larger institutional failures. The fight against impunity relates to the substance of the functioning of state institutions and implies in-depth reforms to put concerns for human rights of the people at the heart of their functioning. The justice and policing systems still lack the strength, accountability and independence demanded from institutions supposed to safeguard human rights in a vibrant democracy.

 

This report has tried to show the far-reaching consequences of institutions which are unable to deliver justice to all equally on the lives of ordinary people. When your right to an effective remedy does not depend on the law but on your ability to mobilize resources, be it in terms of personal or political connections or financial resources, the protection of human rights will be subjugated to arbitrariness and corruption.

 

In Nepal, the slow erosion of the basic structures of justice has been of serious concern in 2012 and it is the responsibility of the human rights movement to focus on the twin tasks of strengthening the authority and the independence of the judiciary and developing the accountability and effectiveness of the policing system. The dissolution of the constituent assembly should not put the debate about the kind of institutions that can protect the rights of all Nepalese on hold. On the contrary the people of Nepal should seize this opportunity to reclaim the terms of the debate and make sure the institutions that will be developed will crystallise the collective sense of fairness of Nepali people.

 

The full 30-page report is available for download at:

http://www.humanrights.asia/resources/hrreport/2012/AHRCSPR0072012HRRptNepal.pdf/view

 

The source material for the report is assiduously researched and highly recommended to anyone interested in the current challenges to Nepal’s democratic process. It includes the following areas of major concern:

 

 1. The slow erosion of democratic institutions

 

2. Judiciary Undermined, Accountability Forestalled

 

3. Independence of National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) further compromised

 

4. Police Reform

 

5. Torture and death threats

 

6. The Case of Forced Evictions in Kathmandu

 

7. Burden of Caste, Alive & Unaddressed

 

8. Conclusion: Rule of law reforms, the heart of rights movement

 

 

 

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Trafficking victims from Nepal rescued in Haiti by Nepali UN peacekeepers

 

October 26, 2012

 

Two Nepalese men were rescued from prison-like conditions in Haiti after 11 months at the mercy of human traffickers who had promised them jobs in the United States, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) reported October 24, 2012.

 

The men, in their 30s, had been recruited in their native Nepal by a human smuggling network that had charged them an unspecified fee in exchange for legal immigration and work in the US, Jumbe Omari Jumbe, a spokesman for the Geneva-based organization told reporters.

 

Since starting their journey last November, the men had been shuttled through Singapore, China, Brazil, Panama and finally on to Haiti — supposedly their last stop before reaching the US — and had been provided official visas for each country they stopped in.

 

“It reads like a detective story,” Jumbe said, pointing out that the smugglers must have had a massive network since they “actually obtained visas from all these countries. They must have paid thousands of dollars.” 

 

Although the two men had been willingly smuggled initially, they became trafficking victims when they arrived in Haiti in January this year and were taken to a private home in the northern city of Cap Haitien.

 

“They were kept as virtual prisoners with little food and dirty drinking water,” Jumbe said, adding that the family had confiscated their passports, threatened them and demanded money.

 

But when their captors told them to call their families and ask for more cash, the men described to their loved-ones, in Nepalese, details of landmarks they had passed when they were being transported to the house.

 

Their relatives then contacted Nepalese police, who in turn alerted police units forming part of the UN peacekeeping mission in Haiti, which organized a rescue mission.

 

“It was very hard finding the area, because these men were in prison. They didn’t see where they were. But finally through hard work they found them and they were rescued,” Jumbe said.

 

IOM, which has helped some 2,000 human trafficking victims since it began working on the issue in 1994, transported the two men back to Nepal, he said.

 

“This case confirms that Haiti is a country of origin, transit and destination for human trafficking and migrant smuggling,” IOM’s mission chief in Haiti, Gregoire Goodstein, said in a statement.

 

“The criminal networks at work in Haiti are national and international,” he added.

 

Most trafficking victims in Haiti are Haitian children who are exploited as cheap or free labor, according to IOM, pointing to the so-called “restavek” (from the French ‘reste avec’, meaning stays with) system that dates back at least two centuries.

 

According to that system, children from very poor rural areas are “entrusted” to families in urban areas who are supposed to provide for their needs, including education, in exchange for their work.

 

But, IOM said, “the vast majority of restaveks end up exploited and abused.”

 

 

YOU CAN HELP:! JOIN AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL’S TAKE ACTION PROGRAM:

 

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U.S. Removes Nepal’s Maoists from its “Terrorist” List. Bad Idea?

 

September 16, 2012

Kul Chandra Gautam is one of Nepal’s most distinguished international civil servants. He served as Assistant Secretary General of the UN and Deputy Executive Director of UNICEF. He was Special Advisor to the Prime Minister of Nepal on International Affairs and the Peace Process. He is a seasoned diplomat and civic leader and serves on the Boards of a number of international and national foundations and charitable organizations. Six months ago, he was also listed by Lalrakshak, the magazine backed by the UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal “Prachanda”, as an “enemy of the people” – a label many analysts equated to a loosely veiled death threat. CLICK HERE for my interview with Mr. Gautam, February 28, 2012

 

Three days ago, following the US lifting of the terrorist tag on Nepal’s Maoists, Mr. Gautam published his response in Republica:

 

“The Teflon Politicians” by Kul Ghandra Gaurtam           

 

The Maoists are ecstatic that the American government has just lifted the ‘terrorist’ tag from them. They never acknowledged or expressed any regret that they had ever used terror tactics. They claim that it was either a “misunderstanding” and their pro-people activism was misconstrued as terrorism, or a “conspiracy” by the world leader of capitalist-imperialist powers to defame a progressive nationalist movement fighting for social justice. In any case, the standard Maoist defence is that if they ever committed any violent excesses, it was their “compulsion”, not their “choice”. Now, the Maoists argue that the Americans have finally corrected their mistake.

 

The Americans––including the new US Ambassador to Nepal––would surely understand the Teflon phenomena. An American company, DuPont uses the brand name ‘Teflon’ for a ‘non-stick’ chemical in cooking pots and pans, much favored by America’s housewives and chefs. In politics, the term Teflon is used to describe a person who is impervious to even valid criticism and on whom no kind of blame seems to stick. Ronald Reagan was called the ‘Teflon president’ as he easily seemed to get away with all kinds of gaffes and mis-statements. He was a lovable actor and people forgave him for mixing up certain facts and figures.

 

Russian President Vladimir Putin seems to enjoy similar Teflon characteristics as many ordinary Russians overlook his authoritarian tendencies in their quest for progress with order and stability. Meanwhile, Nepal’s Maoists, and especially their leader Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’, seem to have acquired an amazing Teflon characteristic as well.

 

Many Nepalis now recognize the deceptive nature of the Maoists when they speak about ‘people’s’ democracy, ‘pro-people’ Constitution, progressive transformation (agragaami paribartan), and even ‘peace, inclusion and social justice’ as their guiding principles. These days, the ordinary Nepali seems immensely cynical about these terms. But curiously, many Western friends of Nepal seem to continue to give the Maoists very generous benefits of doubt, even in the face of blatant and overwhelming evidence. Consider some of these examples.

 

EXTORTION AND DECEPTION

 

When the UN Mission to Nepal (UNMIN) started verifying Maoist combatants, the party flooded the cantonments with nearly 32,000 cadres, many of whom were freshly minted “combatants”. Reportedly, quite a few of their hardcore combatants were kept outside the cantonments as members of their ‘civilian’ Young Communist League, some of them on ‘double duty’—registered in cantonments but serving in various party functions outside. UNMIN did disqualify some 10,000 fake combatants and identified 4,000 as child-soldiers and late recruits.

 

But the Maoists never acknowledged that they had done anything wrong, much less apologizing for their willful lying. On the contrary, in a recorded videotape at Shaktikhor camp, Maoist leader Prachanda gloated with pride about how they had fooled the UN into accepting 19,000 as certified combatants whereas their actual number, he acknowledged, was only 7,000-8,000 only. UNMIN’s response to this disgraceful deception was not an outrage but a plea that we should understand the Maoists’ statement in a “certain context.”

 

Although UNMIN confirmed that nearly 3,000 combatants in cantonments were child-soldiers, and the Maoist leadership tried to negotiate big cash grants from donors in their name, the party has never officially acknowledged that they ever recruited anyone under the age of 18 in violation of international conventions. For two years, the party leadership delayed the release and rehabilitation of these youngsters, giving them false assurances that in the end, the party will either ensure that they are integrated into the Nepal Army or given very generous allowances. However, these poor kids were ultimately dumped by the party with poor packages.

 

Then after four years of dilly-dallying, the Maoist party showed ‘extraordinary flexibility for the sake of peace and constitution’, which was much heralded by many Nepalis and the international community. During physical verification of the combatants to ascertain their interest in integration, rehabilitation or voluntary retirement with a handsome package, it turned out that many thousands of combatants were either “phantoms” or had deserted the cantonments long ago. But the party and its commanders were collecting their allowances regularly with fake signatures. The compulsory levy collected from the meager allowances of these poor combatants had mostly gone to a mysterious ‘party headquarters’ and was never accounted for. Credible reports indicate that the party leadership has thus extorted from the government treasury, billions of rupees.

 

Today, the UCPN (Maoist) is Nepal’s richest but least transparent political party in terms of its financial dealings. After an uproar from within its own ranks, the party has constituted investigative committees to look into personal property and finances of its leaders and commanders. The “agragaami” fanfare with which these committees were created, packed with the party leaders’ henchmen, will predictably absolve the party’s top leadership but hold some middle-level leaders guilty as sacrificial lambs. And once again, many will cheer the glorious party’s courage and ability to introspect and correct internal faults, compared to the opaque nature of other corrupt traditional parliamentary parties.

 

TEFLON LOGIC

 

How is it that in this day and age, a Marxist-Leninist-Stalinist-Maoist party that has not given up violence as a legitimate method of political change and ‘state capture’ by any means—through bullets or ballots—as its ultimate objectives can still project its image as a Teflon-coated ‘progressive and pro-people’ force?

 

Besides its following among many simple and poor folks or genuine victims of oppression who are looking for a savior and for whom the Maoist rhetoric can be very appealing, there seem to be two main reasons behind this. One, many of Nepal’s ethnic, regional and political activists, some civil society leaders, journalists and commentators are convinced that despite some of their excesses, the Maoists are or can be genuine agents for progressive change. Some tend to believe that even if the Maoists are insincere, they can be ‘used’ to neutralize traditional conservative forces to bring about progressive social change. Interestingly, this logic corresponds to the Maoists’ own design and calculation in the old Stalinist tactic of using independent intellectuals as “useful idiots”.

 

Two, after the end of the Cold War, Western countries are no longer worried about the ‘Communist menace’, which has now been generally replaced by Islamophobia. So, progressive-sounding dissident movements tend to enjoy a certain romantic appeal. And in their external relations, Nepal’s Maoists have been relatively successful in projecting their image of being widely misunderstood like the Scandinavian social-democrats.

 

BLIND FAITH

 

It is interesting to watch how certain groups of Nepali intelligentsia and analysts tend to have a deep impact on the thinking of international progressives. The combination of Western-educated intellectuals—who present all of Nepal’s problems as a simple case of the traditional Bahun-Chhetri Hill elites wanting to perpetuate their privileged position by opposing all progressive change that would empower marginalized groups––and Nepali intelligentsia tends to unintentionally support the Teflon Maoists, offering faith-based solutions like ethnic federalism rather than genuinely progressive affirmative actions.

 

Now that the more vocally extremist Mohan Baidya group has split from the UCPN (Maoist), it has become convenient for many such potential analysts to say that the mainstream Maoists are truly progressive social-democrats. Never mind that the UCPN (Maoist) too has officially kept ‘all options open’ as a revolutionary party that believes in the dictatorship of the proletariat.

 

None of this is to say the Maoists should never be given any benefit of doubt. Credit must be given where due. True democrats must be open to all peaceful dissenting views, but always with the wise caution of the old Gipper—‘trust but verify’.

 

[email protected]           

 

 

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Human Rights Watch says Nepal’s ban on women working in Gulf States Wrong-Headed

 

August 16, 2012

 

On August 9, Nepal’s cabinet banned women under the age of 30 from working in Arab Gulf countries as a solution to the ongoing sexual and physical abuse of young women trapped in those states.

 

But two days ago, Human Rights Watch (HRW) issued a statement strongly advocating that the new ban should be revoked. Instead, the Nepali government should concentrate on improving “protections, so that domestic workers can migrate safely – such as by ensuring full monitoring and accountability of recruitment agencies in Nepal.”

 

At the same time, HRW said that governments in the Gulf should adopt long overdue labor protections and immigration reforms, including ending the discriminatory treatment of domestic workers, to combat the abuse of Nepali and other migrant workers.

 

The ban is a response to several publicized cases of abuse of Nepali domestic workers, including long work hours, unpaid wages, and in some cases physical or sexual abuse.

 

See my related article of Oct. 14, 2011, Nepal will allow 150,000 women to work and once again face the dangers of becoming maids in Gulf States:

 

Nepali Women in Gulf States

 

"Nepal is right to be concerned about its migrant domestic workers, but imposing a ban on women under 30 from traveling to the Gulf does not solve the problem and discriminates against young women", said Nisha Varia, senior women's rights researcher at Human Rights Watch.

 

"A better strategy would be to crack down on abusive recruitment practices, ensure that women migrate with an enforceable contract in hand, and equip embassies to respond quickly to complaints of abuse."

 

Official Nepali emigration figures state that as many as 1,000 migrants pass daily through Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu; many others leave by land through the porous Indian border.

 

Many domestic workers have positive experiences and together send home billions of dollars in remittances each year to Asia. Others face abuse.

 

Human Rights Watch has documented discrimination and abuse against Asian domestic workers in the Middle East for several years.

 

Labor laws in the Gulf exclude domestic workers from basic protections guaranteed other workers such as a weekly rest day, limits to hours of work, and compensation in case of work-related injury.

Restrictive immigration rules make it difficult for domestic workers to escape from abusive employers.

 

A ban on the work in the Gulf may drive women desperate for work to migrate through irregular channels, putting them at greater risk of exploitation and trafficking, Human Rights Watch said.

 

Human Rights Watch interviewed Nepali domestic workers in Saudi Arabia during the previous ban and found that they were especially likely to encounter abuse.

 

They had no information about their rights, no employment contracts, and were more likely to migrate with illegal recruiters who left them heavily indebted.

 

If they faced abuse from their employers, their precarious legal status made it more difficult for them to approach or receive assistance from authorities.

 

Instead of a blanket ban on young women that denies them important employment opportunities, Nepal's government should work with other labor-sending governments to demand stronger protections for migrant workers in the Gulf, Human Rights Watch said.

 

It urged the Nepali Government to improve training of migrant workers, to monitor recruitment agencies rigorously, and to ensure migrant women know where to get help if they need it.

 

"Governments in the Gulf should heed the concern about abuse against domestic workers in their countries," said Varia. "They should move quickly to include domestic workers in labor laws, prosecute abusive employers, and improve cooperation with labor-sending countries."

 

Nepal has obligations under its interim constitution and international law to protect women from discrimination, including in employment.

 

The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, which Nepal ratified in 1991, requires states to eliminate discrimination against women in the field of employment.

 

Human Rights Watch also called on the Nepali government to ratify the International Labor Organization Convention on Decent Work for Domestic Workers.

 

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Tibetans Forced Back Into Nepal: Mikel Dunham, Radio Free Asia

 

JUNE 9, 2012 

 

Chinese border police detain pilgrims and refuse them entry into Tibet.

 

In a rare move, Chinese border police have forcibly sent back a group of Tibetan pilgrims seeking to re-enter Tibet from Nepal after confiscating their residency permits and detaining them for a week, according to Tibetan and Nepalese sources.

One analyst called the move “puzzling” and “a new development” in China’s handling of Tibetans wanting to return from Nepal to their homes.

After the fall of Nepal’s government: Human rights crisis?

 

June 6, 2012

 

Below is the written statement submitted by the Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) to the Asian Human Rights Commission on June 5, 2012  

 

NEPAL: Human Rights Council urged to ensure ongoing monitoring and action concerning Nepal's increasingly precarious human rights situation

 

HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL: Twentieth session, Agenda Item 4, General Debate

 

The Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) and Advocacy Forum (AF) would like to draw the attention of the Human Rights Council to serious political developments in Nepal that risk engendering an acute human rights crisis in the country, which until recently hosted an Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) country office. The mandate of this office was established in April 2005, and its presence significantly and positively impacted the protection of human rights, especially during the conflict period. Prior to the office being set up, Nepal had the most serious problem of forced disappearances, with the country being the source of the highest number of new cases of enforced disappearance that were being submitted to the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances. International monitoring, notably of places of detention, that the UN presence provided, led to an end to long-term disappearances. The OHCHR’s presence during and since Nepal’s 2006 popular uprisings, which toppled the country’s monarchy and brought to an end the decade-long conflict, has been significant in ensuring international monitoring and prevention of rights violations, providing civil society with greater space, and its departure should not signal the end of the involvement of the international community in Nepal.

Nepal Muslims demand constitutional input

 

April 23, 2012

 

Kiran Chapagain, in the April 19, 2012 issue of Khabar South Asia, wrote about the century-plus marginalization of Muslims in Nepal, a condition that this ethnic minority is determined to reverse.

 

It was a rare moment in Nepal's political history. On Tuesday (April 17th), the Muslim community, a tiny religious minority in the Hindu-dominated nation, came out in the open for the first time demanding recognition of their distinct identity and equal rights.

American Himalayan Foundation’s ongoing fight against girl trafficking in Nepal

 

April 21, 2012 

On April 30, 2012, the American Himalayan Foundation is hosting a benefit for its STOP Girl Trafficking initiative in Nepal, which was launched in 1997. To date, the program has helped prevent nearly 10,000 girls in the Himalayan region from falling into the common trap of becoming sex-trafficking victims.

Unlike other organizations that provide upfront assistance and then move on, STOP Girl Trafficking (SGT) and the American Himalayan Foundation are committed to rescuing at-risk girls in Nepal from the threat of trafficking by keeping them in school and, even more unique, supporting each girl through graduation and beyond.

According to a report issued in 2009 by the U.S. Department of State, more than 22,000 Nepali women and girls – the majority ranging in age from 12 to 18 – are trafficked annually. Forced prostitution and constant physical abuse – not to mention a high probability of contracting HIV – awaits them.

SGT began with 54 girls in 1997, when it traveled to remote villages to encourage girls to remain in school and to educate girls and their mothers on the dangers of sex trafficking. Since then, SGT has established programs at 400 government schools in districts plagued by some of Nepal’s highest rates of trafficking. Presently over 9000 girls are safely attending school thanks to the efforts of Dr. Aruna Uprety, the Nepali physician and activist who initiated the program, in partnership with the American Himalayan Foundation. The graduation rate for SGT scholars is 82%. Fewer than 2% have dropped out of the program.

Clearly, this is an initiative that is time-proven and well worth Westerners’ support.

 

 

 

 

BENEFIT DETAILS

The upcoming event, to be held in San Francisco at The Four Seasons, will include the attendance of several notable activists working in cooperation with the American Himalayan Foundation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Siddharth Kara is an author and one of the world's foremost experts on modern day slavery and human trafficking. He is the first Fellow on Human Trafficking with the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and a Visiting Scientist on Forced Labor at the Harvard School of Public Health. He is best known for his award-winning book, Sex Trafficking: Inside the Business of Modern Slavery (2009). His next book, Bonded Labor: Tackling the System of Slavery in South Asia is scheduled for release in 2012.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dr. Aruna Uprety, who created STOP Girl Trafficking, has a deep understanding of women’s issues in South Asia. In addition to her work with the American Himalayan Foundation, she founded Rural Health and Education Trust in 1995 and has lived and worked with Afghan women in Kabul in the aftermath of the US-led war against the Taliban. She has researched and published numerous articles on HIV/AIDS, STD, Sex Workers, Abortion, Maternal Health, Health Workers, Law, and Rural Women.

Her research includes: Baseline Study of Simulated STD Patients & Chemists in the Land Transportation Routes, Baseline Survey of Commercial Sex Workers & Clients, A Situation Analysis of Regional & Zonal Hospitals in Management of Family Planning and Post Abortion Related Complications. Her published works include: Your Health Is In Your Hands: A health guide for Women, Where Women Have No Doctor, Beijing Platform For Action, Women’s Health in Nepal: A situational analysis.

Dr. Uprety is also the author of a monthly column on various topics on women’s health and rights, including prolapsed uterus, anemia, gender, AIDS, family planning, trafficking, child health, and nutrition and has worked on Asmita, AIDS, an information booklet for the barely literate.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jon Krakauer, is the American writer and mountaineer, primarily known for his writing about the outdoors and mountain climbing. He is the author of best-selling the non-fiction books Into the Wild, Into Thin Air, Under the Banner of Heaven, and Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman

 

 

 

For information and reservations to the April 30^th event:

 

American Himalayan Foundation Events

 

or call:

 

415-288 7250

 

 

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Asian Human Rights Commission Report: Red-flags on human rights violations

 

April 3, 2012

The Asian Human Rights Commission wishes to express its concern toward the scrapping of the provision prohibiting amnesty for human rights violations in the Bills establishing the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the Commission of Inquiry on Disappearances. Principles along which lines the final version of the bill is to be drafted by the Ministry of Law and Justice were defined by three lawmakers representing each of the three major political parties of Nepal and agreed upon by a meeting of the top leaders of those three political parties on Saturday 31 March 2012.

Interesting review and analysis of Nepal’s governmental corruption

 

March 23, 2012

 

This week the Asian Human Rights Commission published a lengthy article on Nepali corruption written by Om Prakash Sen Thakuri. Below is a slightly condensed version.

 

The annual report of Transparency International (TI) on the perception of corruption index has listed Nepal 154^th out of the 183 countries around the world it has assessed. Nepal was ranked 121^st in 2008, and is the lowest placed South Asian country after Afghanistan. Nepal scored only 2.2 out of 10 where below 3.0 is considered a high percentage of corruption. Earlier this month, the Prime Minister admitted that corruption is rampant in Nepal. The Auditor General's Annual Report for 2011 brought to light the extent to which money laundering takes place in the government sector. According to the report, from the total amount of Rs 29,91,4,000,000 collected from the tax some 1,26,95,00,000 (Approximately US$ 15, 868,750) was not deposited in the state coffer during the last fiscal year 2010/11.

Maoists Threaten Prominent Nepalis and Former U.N. Officials

 

February 17, 2011

 

Inter Press Service News Agency (IPS) released a troubling report concerning two former U.N. officials based in Kathmandu and another well known advocate, who are now facing implicit death threats from Nepal’s ruling Maoist political party and have appealed to the United Nations for help and protection. The report was filed on February 15 by Thalif Deen.

Kul Chandra Gautam, a former U.N. assistant secretary-general and a longstanding deputy executive director of the U.N. children's agency UNICEF, and Kanak Mani Dixit, a former press officer at the U.N.'s Department of Public Information (DPI) in New York and currently a senior Nepali journalist, have been declared "people's enemies".

A third individual under threat is Subodh Raj Pyakurel, executive director of Informal Services Sector (INSEC), the largest non- governmental human rights organisation in Nepal.

All three have been blacklisted in a cover story in the monthly magazine Lalrakshak published by the ruling Unified Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (UCPN-Maoist).

Asian Human Rights Commission Report: Nepal government flunks in 2011; torture on the rise, among other failures

February 2, 2011

NEPAL: Delays in the implementation of UPR recommendations highlight the absence of a functioning democratic State 

(Report issued February 1, 2012).

 

On January 25, 2011, Nepal's human rights record was reviewed for the first time under the Universal Periodic Review mechanism. That mechanism was established by the UN General Assembly on 15 March 2006 through resolution 60/251 to "review the fulfilment by each State of its human rights obligations and commitments." On that occasion, peer countries raised concerns about ongoing human rights challenges and formulated recommendations to improve Nepal's human rights framework. Recommendations notably concerned ongoing reports of torture and violence by law enforcement agencies, persistence of gender-based violence, continuous caste-based discrimination, insecurity of human rights defenders in a context of overreaching impunity for past and present human rights abuses and with failing police and justice systems in the country. The government accepted a majority of those recommendations and therefore committed to take the necessary measures to turn them into concrete advancements in the human rights situation. The Government of Nepal has the primary responsibility to implement the recommendations it accepted as part of the review as the UPR ensures that all countries are accountable for progress or failure in implementing these recommendations.  

Human Rights Watch in Nepal: A Turn for the Worse in 2011

 

January 28, 2012

 

World Report 2012: Nepal

Issued January 24, 2012

Nepal’s political and peace processes remained stalled in 2011, resulting in instability, weak governance, and a lack of progress on accountability for human rights violations, Human Rights Watch said today in its World Report 2012.

 

The government and political parties consistently failed to establish accountability for serious abuses during the conflict with Maoist insurgents, which ended in 2006, Human Rights Watch said. Instead, they further weakened an already dysfunctional justice system by ignoring court orders and appointing people allegedly guilty of serious rights violations to senior government positions.

Nepal kicks out UN human rights organization just as torture is reported to be on the rise

December 13, 2011

The Maoist-led Nepal government has terminated the term of the UN human rights body, the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Nepal (OHCHR-N) ignoring national and international calls to renew the mandate of the UN body. OHCHR-N arrived in Nepal in 2005 when the then Royal government invited them to monitor and promote human rights in the country. 

Nepal's main opposition parties, Nepali Congress and CPN-UML along with the international community and the UN Secretary-General himself had called for the renewal of OHCHR-N's term here in Nepal. The UN Secretary-General had called Prime Minister Bhattarai yesterday evening requesting a term extension of the UN rights body.
 

Prime Minister Bhattarai informed the Secretary General that the Nepal government would not extend the term but would rather seek to strengthen its national rights body, the National Human Rights Commission.

Mikel Dunham’s “CAUGHT IN NEPAL” is now available worldwide

 

November 8, 2011

Today is the pub date for my newest book, a project that began more than three years ago. I gave digital cameras to Tibetan refugees stranded in Nepal with the task of documenting their daily lives in their settlements. Caught in Nepal is the result of that joint effort. The book includes my essay on the 2000-year-old relationship between the people of Nepal and Tibet. 

The book is now available. If you are not in Nepal you can still purchase a copy directly through the Nepali publisher’s website, (located in Kathmandu), or, if you prefer, through amazon.com. 


Vajra Publisher's Link

 

Amazon.com Link

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Tibetan protest in Nepal: 11th Buddhist monk self-immolates

 

November 1, 2011

Nepali security forces detained more than 60 Tibetan refugees earlier today as they demonstrated in support of Buddhist monks who have set themselves on fire to protest Chinese rule in their homeland.

 Police say the demonstrators were arrested after shouting anti-China slogans during a prayer service outside a monastery on the outskirts of the capital, Kathmandu. Bowing to Chinese pressure, the Nepali government is increasingly cracking down on gatherings of exiled Tibetans. On Monday, China's military chief, General Chen Bingde, said Beijing approves of Nepal's “firm stance on issues related to Tibet.” Chen made his comments in Beijing during a visit by his Nepalese counterpart, General Chhatraman Singh Gurung, who reaffirmed his promise to never allow “anti-Chinese activities” to take place on Nepalese soil.

 The protest followed the 11th self-immolation in Tibet on October 25, when a monk set himself on fire during a religious ceremony.

 Dawa Tsering, a monk in his thirties from Kardze Monastery in Kardze (Chinese: Ganzi) Tibetan Autonomous Prececture in Sichuan, became the 11th Tibetan to have self-immolated since March 2009, and the tenth since March of this year.

Details from various exiled sources indicate that Dawa Tsering was still alive immediately after monks and other people attending a religious ritual at the monastery extinguished the flames, although his current condition and whereabouts are not clear.

One source indicated he was initially taken to hospital before monks then took him back to the monastery to prevent his arrest by police arriving at the hospital at around the same time; another source indicated he refused medical treatment and pleaded not to be taken to hospital. Both sources suggested however that Dawa Tsering was at the monastery in the care of other monks and laypeople, who were preventing Chinese police – stationed at the monastery in large numbers since the Tibet-wide protests of 2008 – from interrogating or detaining him.

Eye-witnesses report that Dawa Tsering was participating in a religious ceremony at the time of a Cham (monastic) Dance, attended by hundreds of local people inside the monastery when he set himself alight and shouted slogans calling for the Dalai Lama’s return to Tibet. The atmosphere at the monastery in the immediate wake of the incident was said by sources to be extremely tense, with Chinese police deployed around and inside the monastery in an apparent stand-off with the monks and lay-people protecting Dawa Tsering.


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Nepal: Under new regime, murderers of journalists could go free

 

 September 17, 2011

On September 15, Nepal's new Maoist regime proposed pardoning killers of journalists. In response, the Committee to Protect Journalists wrote the following letter to Prime Minister Dr. Baburam Bhattarai:

 

 

Dear Prime Minister Bhattarai:

We are alarmed by recent reports regarding the planned amnesty of criminal cases pending from past political violence in Nepal and are writing to express our concern that people convicted of killing journalists could go free based on political decisions made by your government.

Al Jazeera's footage of Nepali Children sold to Indian Circuses

 

September 12, 2011 

Click on image below for film:

 

 

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Mikel Dunham on Radio Free Asia: Nepal Arrests Dalai Lama's Envoy

 

August 6, 2011

 

 

Authorities in Nepal arrested on Friday the Dalai Lama's new representative in the Himalayan territory after he held a news conference calling for protection of Tibetan refugee rights, sources said.

The arrest of Thinley Lama, volunteer coordinator of the Tibetan Refugee Welfare Office, came amid persistent pressure from Beijing urging the Nepalese government to stop “anti-China activities” by Tibetan refugees.

He was taken away and interrogated by police after he held a press conference asking the Nepal government to ensure the rights of the country’s 20,000 Tibetan refugees under Nepal’s new constitution.

The press conference, held at a Kathmandu hotel, was Thinley Lama’s first since his June appointment. (Full transcript translated into English provided below.)

Thinley Lama, a Nepali citizen, was expected to be released after signing  specific "commitments," a source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“They want him to shackle himself in future press conferences,” the source said.

PERSECUTION

Rights groups criticized the Nepali government and called for strong action from the international community and an end to what they called "persecution" of Tibetan refugees in Nepal.

"I think this gesture—arresting this representative of the Tibetan government in exile—brings us to a new low," Sophie Richardson, Human Rights Watch's Asia advocacy director, told RFA.

"We have not seen behavior this specific, this aggressive, and frankly this baseless, in quite some time, and it is a very alarming development that requires a fairly vociferous response from the international community to make sure that the government of Nepal is upholding its obligations to Tibetans," she said. 

China has been more aggressive in urging Nepal to take action against Tibetan refugees since last month when the new Chinese ambassador to Nepal, Yang Houlan, assumed office, news reports said. 

Yang had reminded the Nepali government and political parties in the country against allowing any “anti-China activity” by Tibetans living in Nepal, the reports said.

Tibetan refugees living in Nepal are under pressure to avoid asserting their national identity as their host country moves closer to its powerful northern neighbor China, analysts say.

Even religious ceremonies and community gatherings by Tibetans are increasingly viewed with suspicion by authorities in Nepal. They were also prevented from celebrating the birthday of the Dalai Lama last month.

Many of the refugees arrived in Nepal following a failed 1959 Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule in which thousands fled south across the Himalayas.

Many still flee Tibet each year, hoping to transit Nepal to India, home of Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama and seat of the Tibetan government-in-exile.

At the press conference on Friday, Thinley referred to four treaties signed between Nepal and Tibet as two "sovereign countries" in 1645, 1789, 1792 and 1856, the Times of India reported. 

He noted that on the basis of amicable relations with Tibet, earlier Nepali governments had given sanctuary to Tibetans forced to leave their countries as "political refugees," the report said. China says there are no Tibetan “refugees,” only illegal immigrants.

"I guess the thing that really ‘got their goat’ was that he referenced old treaties between Nepal and Tibet," said Mikel Dunham, an American writer and blogger on Nepal’s politics who frequently travels to the country."That would not have gone down well, particularly with the new Chinese ambassador in Nepal, Yang Houlan, who seems to be the feistiest of all the [Chinese] ambassadors so far."

Announcing premier of documentary on sex-slavery in Nepal

 

June 26, 2011

 

Actress Demi Moore has partnered with Anuradha Koirala and the CNN Freedom Project for the documentary, "Nepal's Stolen Children," premiering Sunday, June 26 around the world. 

Ms. Koirala was selected as CNN’s 2010 Hero of the Year. 

There are an estimated 30,000,000 slaves worldwide.

Nepal’s Tolerance of Governmental Corruption: Sapkota vs Dixit

 

The Case of a Cabinet Member accused of murder, the Prime Minister, and counter aggression leveled at journalist Kanak Mani Dixit

June 13, 2011

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nothing has brought into focus Nepal’s permissive attitude toward corrupt officials more blatantly than Prime Minister Jhala Nath Khanal’s recent appointment of senior Maoist leader Agni Sapkota as Minister for Information and Communications. Sapkota is accused by a long list of human rights organizations as being a leading party to the murder of Arjun Bahadur Lama in 2005. 

On May 24, in a letter jointly written by the International Commission of Jurists, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, the groups urged Prime Minister Khanal to reconsider Sapkota’s appointment since criminal investigations were pending against him. They also strong objected to Home Minister Krishna Bahadur Mahara’s maneuvering to withdraw human rights cases, including the case against Sapkota. The new home minister is also a senior member of the Maoist party.

The letter said in part: "The appointment of Sapkota, a member of the politburo of the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), while he is under police investigation sends a strong signal of government indifference to such serious allegations and reinforces the culture of impunity in Nepal."

Nepal’s Kidnappers – Filmed report by Al Jazeera English

 

April 9, 2011 

Kidnapping is a lucrative business in Nepal these days. Armed groups are willing to risk children's lives to extort money from poor shopkeepers, farmers, and teachers – especially in Madhes, the southern region that parallels and abuts the Indian border. 

In a new report issued by Human Rights Watch, criminal gangs abducted at least 28 children in Madhes in 2010. Nine of these abductions ended with the child being killed, and in two cases girls were raped by the kidnappers.

But Al Jazeera English paints a far darker picture. In a film clip aired this week, Al Jazeera states that “33 abductions occur every month from Sihara district” alone.

CLICK HERE FOR FILM CLIP

Nepalis beware: Don’t try to immigrate to the US through Mexico

 

January 29, 2011

On January 26, Mexican authorities rescued a group of 219 immigrants in the southern state of Chiapas. Four of them were from Nepal. The group included 177 men, 33 women and 9 children – all of them stuffed into the back of a truck like livestock. The police chased down the truck when the driver refused to stop for inspection at a checkpoint. 

After the discovery of human cargo in the back of the truck, the immigrants told the authorities that that they had been threatened into submission and silence by the men who were supposedly transporting them to the United States border. In Guatamala, they had paid $7319, per person, for the dangerous ride. All of them were deported on January 27.

Being caught by the authorities may have been the luckiest thing that happened to the Nepalis. In the following days, they could have easily died from suffocation or heat stroke inside the cramped locked quarters of the truck. And it’s not just the quality of transport that should have concerned the Nepalis.

Continued concern over violence against Nepali journalists

 

December 3, 2010

The Committee to Protect Journalists is an independent, nonprofit organization founded in 1981 to promote press freedom worldwide by defending the rights of journalists to report the news without fear of reprisal. CPJ has a full-time staff of 23 at its New York headquarters, including area specialists for each major world region. CPJ has a Washington, D.C. representative, and consultants stationed around the world. A 35-member board of prominent journalists directs CPJ's activities. The organization does not accept government funding.

Two days ago, CPJ issued a report indicating its concern over a violent attack and continuing threats against Nepalese journalist Shreedeep Rayamajhi in connection with his online reporting.

Dodging a bullet while mired in quicksand: Nepalis working overseas

 

 

December 1, 2010

Thanks to foreign remittances, Nepal is one of the few countries that have not experienced an economic slowdown in the last several years. This is according to a just-released report prepared by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). 

Remittance flow to Nepal is estimated to reach US$3.5 billion in 2010. Nepal received payments worth nearly US$3 billion in 2009.

Manohar Khanal, director at the Department of Foreign Employment (DoFE), said yesterday that the “current demand trend show there will be a sudden boost early next year.” Prior approvals had risen from 23,512 overseas jobs in mid-September to nearly 31,000 in mid-November. And Saudi Arabia has just decided to hire 100,000 Nepali workers over the next four months.

Currently, around 1.7 million Nepalis (out of a total population of 30 million) are working in overseas jobs. All of these laborers – most of them male -- send a large portion of their paychecks back home, which makes up 23 percent of Nepal’s gross domestic product. The DoFE can barely keep up with the paperwork: It is issuing approximately 1000 approvals each day.

Reconnecting with Anurada Koirala, 2010 winner of CNN’s Hero of the Year Award

 

November 28, 2010

Last night in Hollywood, Anurada Koirala – founder of Maiti Nepal, the Nepali anti-trafficking organization -- was feted following her win of the prestigious CNN Hero of the Year Award. The awards ceremony was held earlier in the week at LA’s Shrine Auditorium, emceed by Anderson Cooper and with nearly 5,000 people in attendance.  

Religious Freedom in Nepal Report

 

November 21, 2010

The U.S. State Department's Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor has just released its International Religious Freedom Report 2010. Below is the section regarding Nepal.

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The interim constitution promulgated in 2007 provies for freedom of religion; however, it specifically prohibits proselytizing. The Constituent Assembly recently extended to May 2011, the deadline for drafting the new constitution.

Nepal – playing China’s lackey – seizes ballot boxes for Tibetan election

 

October 5, 2010

Apparently, all China has to do to get its way in Nepal these days is to speed-dial Nepal’s Home Minister Bhim Rawal, and the perceived problem will be eliminated.

This is what happened on Sunday, when Nepal’s northern neighbor pressured the struggling government to disrupt the peaceful election held by Tibetan refugees. The election was held to elect a new prime minister for the Tibetan government-in-exile in Dharamsala, India. 

Armed police in riot gear stormed three elections centers in Kathmandu – shortly before voting was completed -- and confiscated the ballot boxes, despite the fact that – according to human rights organizations in Kathmandu – tacit permission had been given by Nepali authorities. 

This was the first time Nepal had interfered with the Tibetans low-profile election process. 

5316 Tibetans were registered to vote in the Boudhanath stupa area of Kathmandu, 980 in Jawalakhel, and 2336 in Swayambhunath at the nunnery. 15 ballot boxes were seized in Boudhanath. Five boxes were seized in Swayambhu. In Jawalakel, the voting process had already been completed and the boxes had been removed.  

 

 

 

 

Bhim Rawal, the current Minister of of Home Affairs, just returned from New York, where he led Nepal’s delegation to the United Nations General Assembly. Rawal is a leader within the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) also known as the UML.

For this writer, the problem does not so much hinge on what any given political party in Nepal feels about the 20,000 Tibetan refugees stranded in Nepal – who are not allowed to own property, and who have no hope of gaining Nepali citizenship. The real problem – at least for me – is the process that took place here:

China doesn’t like something. China phones the Home Ministry. The Home Ministry immediately calls in the armed police. The armed police hit the streets in riot gear and carry out their orders. 

Where’s the affirmation of the basic human rights due every human being in Nepal in such a backroom operation?

The irony here is that, while Nepal’s government can’t conduct a successful election for its own prime ministry (nine failures in the last two months!) the Tibetans, who conducted a quiet and orderly election (with no funds or bureaucratic might), will certainly result in the naming of a new Tibetan prime minister – with or without the ballot boxes absconded by the Nepali government at the behest of Beijing. The contrast is as blatant as it is shameful.

 

To see the video of the police taking away the ballot boxes CLICK HERE

 

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Nepali Terrorism -- U.S. State Department Annual Report

 

 

August 9, 2010

 

US DEPARTMENT OF STATE

OFFICE OF THE COORDINATOR FOR COUNTERTERRORISM

Country Reports on Terrorism 2009

August 5, 2010    Nepal

While Nepal experienced no significant acts of international terrorism, several incidents of politically-motivated violence occurred in the country. Maoist -affiliated Young Communist League (YCL) criminal activity continued, including intimidation and extortion. In response to the YCL violence, other political parties condoned the use of violence by their youth wings. Unrest in the southern Terai plains remained high with the proliferation of numerous armed groups and an inadequate police presence. More than 100 armed groups are estimated to be operating in the Terai, some in pursuit of independence or autonomy, most composed of opportunistic criminal elements. Competing factions clashed with each other, with the Maoists, with hill-origin Nepalese, and with police, instigating numerous strikes, demonstrations, and Indo-Nepal border road closures. A Special Security Plan (SSP) was put in place in July to curb violence and end the culture of impunity. Despite this program, police still do not have an active presence in many parts of the Terai.

Nepal experienced several acts of religiously-motivated violence, most prominently the bombing of a Catholic Church in May. The attack was conducted by the Nepalese Defense Army (NDA), a Hindu extremist group that was responsible for shooting a Catholic priest and bombing a mosque in 2008. The leader of this group has since been arrested and their activities appear to have ceased.

There were no indications that Nepal was a safe haven for international terrorists. Given Nepal’s continued instability, however, there is a possibility that members of extremist groups could transit Nepal, especially into India. The large ungoverned space along the Nepal/Indian border exacerbates this vulnerability, as do security shortfalls at Tribhuvan Airport, Nepal’s international airport. In June, Lashkar-e Tayyiba (LT) member Muhammad Omar Madni traveled through Nepal enroute to New Delhi.

Nepal is not a regional financial center and there were no indications that the country was used as an international money laundering center. There were no prosecutions or arrests for money laundering in 2009. However, YCL illicit financial activities, including smuggling, extortion, and protection demands, increased in 2009.

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Update: Human Trafficking and Slavery in Nepal

June 22, 2010

 

According to the just-released U.S. State Department’s 2010 Traffic in Persons Report, 

Nepal made some progress in its anti-trafficking law enforcement efforts in 2009. But the Nepali government’s efforts were not enough to remove the nation from a “Tier 2” status, which indicates that Nepal has still failed to fully comply with the minimum standards of the U.S. Trafficking Victim Protection Act. 

Lack of resources, the ongoing political instability in Nepal and trafficking-related complicity by government officials, were listed as primary obstacles preventing the young republic from making more progress.

 Below is the full report. 

Nepal: An APPEAL Defining the Principles of Democracy

 

April 13, 2010

  

Time is running out for the Constituent Assembly to meet the May 28 deadline for writing Nepal’s new constitution (as mandated by the April 2008 Elections). Few people remain, who cling to the hope that that deadline will be met -- leaving one to wonder if the CA has the right to regard itself as a legitimate body after May 28.

Nevertheless, in the meantime, concerned citizens have penned an Appeal to spur on the process. Yesterday, Kanak Mani Dixit sent me a document signed by some of Nepal’s leading activists. Motivated by the inestimable importance of getting the writing of Nepal’s new constitution right -- nothing should be taken for granted at this juncture --  it lays down bedrock values that should spark a crucial dialogue among frustrated lawmakers, self-serving politicians and Nepali citizens alike.

 

  

29 Chaitra 2066 - 11 April 2010

The country has entered a state of deep political uncertainty. This uncertainty is undermining the

Latest Human Rights Report on Nepal: U.S. State Department

 

 March 17, 2010

 

Last week, the U.S. State Department released its 2009 Human Rights Report on Nepal. Below are some of the highlights. A link to the full document is provided at the end of the summary.

 

INTRODUCTION

The government's respect for human rights improved slightly as all parties joined the government. Members of the security forces, the Maoist militias, the Maoist-affiliated Young Communist League (YCL), and members of other small, often ethnically based armed groups committed human rights abuses. Members of the Nepal Army (NA) were confined to their barracks in accordance with the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) of 2006. Members of the Nepal Police (NP) and Armed Police Force (APF) occasionally used excessive and lethal force in response to continued demonstrations throughout the country. Maoist militias engaged in arbitrary and unlawful use of lethal force and abduction. Violence, extortion, and intimidation continued throughout the year. Numerous armed groups, largely in the Terai region in the lowland area near the Indian border, attacked civilians, government officials, members of particular ethnic groups, each other, or Maoist militias. Impunity for human rights violators, threats against the media, arbitrary arrest, and lengthy pretrial detention were serious problems. The government compromised the independence of the judiciary by exerting political pressure on the judicial process, and society continued to discriminate against persons of lower castes and persons with disabilities. Violence against women and trafficking in persons, mainly women and girls, continued.

Child Sacrifice in Nepal; Four Men Arrested

 

February 12, 2010

According to Agence France-Presse, the murderers of an eight-year-old girl were finally apprehended this week. The tragic incident occurred in early December of 2009.

"The circumstances of the killing in early December suggest the girl was sacrificed," local police official Narhari Adhikari told AFP from Rupandehi district in the south of Nepal.

 The child's throat had been slit and her body pierced with a sharp weapon. Local media reported her blood was found inside a brick kiln along with religious offerings of money and food.

"We have arrested four people including the owner of the brick kiln on charges of murder. Two of those arrested confessed they killed the girl as an offering to the gods to bring good fortune to the business," he added.

Nepal outlawed human sacrifice in 1780, but experts have long insisted that it is still practiced by some communities in backward rural areas.

"Some people still believe sacrificing human beings will appease the gods, improve their fortunes and raise their social status," said Chunda Bajracharya, professor of cultural studies at Kathmandu's Tribhuvan University.

The general Nepali public are horrified by such primitive and barbaric practices, but the incident should serve to remind the public how far Nepal still needs to come in protecting its children’s rights. Bonded child laborers and child slaves still exist in Nepal.  Some children are sold by their parents for as little as $40 to middlemen, who sell them to private households where they are forced to do domestic chores up to 16 hours a day. Others migrate with their parents to unsupervised industries, such as brick factories, where the children are put to work as donkey handlers or brick carriers. Still other children are lured away from their parents by despicable agents who promise the parents that their offspring will be given a good education – but once in the custody of the agents, false documents are created to “prove” that they are orphans and, ultimately, end up in adoption centers that cater to wealthy Westerners, particularly from the United States, Spain, Italy and France. (The latest Hague Conference report just censored Nepal’s continuing lax adoption practices.)

One final note: Rupandehi district, where the eight-year-old girl was cruelly sacrificed, also boasts the site of the birthplace of Nepal’s most famous son. Siddhartha Gautama, the historic Buddha, was born in Lumbini, not too far from where the girl was slaughtered. Lumbini is one of Nepal’s major tourist attractions. It’s a deeply sad irony – lost on tourists and the Nepali government alike – the latter of whom are too busy fighting among themselves to rectify the cruel superstitions and lack of education that feed into and allow such horrifying practices to remain a reality in the hinterlands.

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Nepal Political Update: Incendiary Madhes, the Maoists & the Attempted Murder of Journalist Tika Bista

December12, 2009

 

KAILALI INCIDENT 

Disillusionment, lawlessness and violence continue to shackle Western Nepal, particularly in the Madhes, the southern swath of Nepali plains that constitutes 33% of the country’s population. In the past week, two events in particular illustrate the regions’ tinderbox-like conditions. And the Maoists have played a major role in the unrest.

Asian Centre for Human Rights Admonishes India over the Nepali Border Crisis

September 2,  2009

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Politics in Terai is fragmented to unmanageable levels. Most groups have a semi-militant character and there are allegedly 109 armed groups operating in the Terai alone. Many armed groups operate in the belt, with close ties with criminal networks across the border in India. The anarchic set up provides space for international counterfeit currency and drug trafficking.”

 

The Asian Centre for Human Rights (ACHR) today called on the State Governments of Uttar Pradesh (UP) and Bihar to take action against Nepal’s armed groups operating from Indian soil.

 

In its latest briefing paper, “Madhes: The challenges and opportunities for a stable Nepal” released today the ACHR stated that there are multiple Nepalese armed opposition groups operating from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh and local politicians, not necessarily the Indian State, have been providing support to these groups.

 

The armed opposition groups in Terai, Nepal have been proliferating and about 100 of them are active at present.

 

“The improvement of law and order situation under Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in Bihar has also resulted in criminal elements exploiting lawlessness on the Nepal side, and collaborating with local operators to loot, extort, and kill. The cross border anarchic set up provides space to international counterfeit currency, drug smuggling and trafficking networks” – stated Mr Suhas Chakma, Director of ACHR.

 

While acknowledging India’s repeated insistence of not backing any extremist outfit from Nepal, the Asian Centre for Human Rights stated “Delhi complicates the situation further by attempting to micro-manage party politics and sending multiple and conflicting messages to different actors in Nepal.”

 

Asian Centre for Human Rights also called on the government of Nepal to recognize the rights of the Madhesis including their mother tongues and bring an end to the ongoing extrajudicial executions in the Terai in the name of maintaining law and order. There were allegations of over a dozen extrajudicial executions in recent past.

 

Warning about the deteriorating situation in the Terai, Asian Centre for Human Rights stated, “The debate over the Vice President Dr Parmanand Jha taking oath in Hindi may be over but another conflict may not be if the government of Nepal continues with its clumsy armed intervention.

 

ACHR has asked the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to investigate the extrajudicial executions in the Terai region.

 

ACHR specifically recommended to the State governments of UP and Bihar (1) to stop any form of covert encouragement to extremist groups, using violent means, to push secessionist agenda in the Terai; (2) to not allow activities of these groups from Indian soil, and instead use leverage to push them to curtail activities on the lines of what had been done before the constituent assembly elections and (3) be vigilant about the potential of non state actors on the Indian side who provide such encouragement to extremist groups in the Terai, and take appropriate actions.

 

 

 

 

 

For the full report issued by Asian Centre for Human Rights on the Indian border issue, click on the link below:

 

Report on Indian-Nepali Border 

 

  

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Political Update: The Habitual Sandstorms of Nepal’s Leaders

June 14, 2009





























During the last month, there has been something unsettlingly familiar about the swift shifts of Nepal’s political winds.

The Maoists pulled the plug on their own government after only eight months in power. The second strongest party in Nepal, the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist Leninist) – UML, stepped in to form a coalition government with Madhav Kumar Nepal as its new Prime Minister. The Prime Minister named Bijay Kumar Gachhadar (of the Madhesi People’s Rights Forum – MPRF- party) as Deputy Prime Minister. Immediately after, the notion of a coalition was thrown into question: Upendra Yadav, Chairman of Madhesi People’s Rights Forum – the fourth strongest party in Nepal -- expelled the new Deputy Prime Minister Gachhadar from the party and withdrew MPRF support of the new government. The new Prime Minister also appointed two controversial figures for plum cabinet positions: Sujata Koirala (Nepal Congress party) as Foreign Minister and Kul Bahadur Khadka as the security advisor.

In the meantime, an endless succession of strikes plagued the nation. An underground Hindu fundamentalist army blew up the Catholic Church in Kathmandu, killing three and injuring many others. Acts of violence perpetrated by parties against other parties proliferated. A long-bitter border dispute between India and Nepal found new oxygen fanned by the shrill anti-India rhetoric of Maoist leaders Prachanda and Dr. Bhattarai, who blamed India for destabilizing their administration  --  just as Delhi police announced that Lashkar-e-Taiba, (the terrorist organization responsible for the November 2008 bombing of the Taj Mahal Palace hotel in Mumbai) had run a logistical hub that funneled dozens of jihadists through Nepal, thus renewing the debate of the dangers of a porous border, wherever and if ever that disputed border locks in on a concise demarcation.

For the last four dismal weeks it’s been hard to know which way to look. One sandstorm after another. The residual effect is not only to lose sight – sight of what Nepal’s main goals are – but also to blur the memory of Nepal’s major achievement of having conducted the 2008 elections.

And in the meantime, the most important role the Constituent Assembly has to play – to pen a new constitution by the May 28, 2010 deadline – is no closer to a working reality than when the recent Maoist regime fudged this prime obligation.
 
The overall impact is corrosive, both in terms of the peace process and the general morale of the people. Analysts are beginning to ask: Have we returned to the 1990s, when there was a different government annually, which accomplished little beyond each successive ruling power succeeding in feathering its personal nest? A ten-year insurgency rose out of that cynical and selfish brand of government. It’s mind numbing to think that -- after all the effort put into the 2006 peace accord and the morale-boosting 2008 elections – the political parties are now simply drifting back to the reprehensible habits of the 1990s “me-first” politics.

A few days ago, the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Nepal (OHCHR) voiced its concern that “the growing number of acts of violence by political parties and affiliated groups, and subsequent threats of retaliation, could threaten the peace process.” But who cares what the OHCHR has to say? Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal has said that OHCHR´s role has become ineffective since it is more focused on politics than human rights violations. OHCHR will be gone by this autumn. Nepal has categorically turned down the OHCHR´s request to extend its term by three years.

Perhaps the country doesn’t require outside perspectives.

But the personal mirrors of Nepal’s politicians – from Prachanda, who blew a wonderful opportunity for rectification, to G.P. Koirala, whose dictatorial and dynastic bullying make a mockery of his professed love for democracy – their mirrors don’t seem to be providing much wisdom these days, and certainly no clarity.

Where does this leave the people of Nepal? Ashamed of their politicians, who can’t tear themselves away from their own reflections? Beginning to wonder if the future they envisioned when they walked to the polling booths last year was nothing more than an elaborate sandcastle peddled by the powerbrokers? Beginning to wonder if their participation in a “New Nepal” was not worth the hike to the next village?


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What Constitution? What law and order? Dunham's Interview with Bishwa Kanta Mainali, President of the Nepal Bar Association

May 26, 2009





























With all eyes on the newly appointed Prime Minister, the judiciary remains besieged. The foundation of law and order is grounded in a nation’s constitution; the writing of the constitution – the signal responsibility of the constituent assembly – has been put on hold yet again. The Supreme Court, which has several crucial decisions pending, continues to be attacked from various factions. And security continues to reveal its soft underbelly with such condemnable acts as last week’s bombing of Kathmandu’s catholic church, resulting in two deaths and fourteen injured, with little expectation that the culprits will be brought to justice.

The previous Maoist Prime Minister had his showdown with the judiciary and ended up tucking his tail and beating a hasty retreat. The Supreme Court remains a power to be reckoned with. But the fact remains that Nepal’s judiciary system – like every other public institution in Nepal -- faces an extremely precarious future until and unless the drafting of the new constitution becomes a reality.