Effective action needed on human rights, ICG says

The International Crisis Group (ICG) has recently released a report on the state of human rights in Nepal, calling for effective international action to be taken. "The international community now finds itself confronted with what it fears the most - a no-party state that has decimated democracy and kills people at will," Robert Templer, the ICG’s Asia programme director said. "At this point, international action to end the human rights crisis and support to resolve the ongoing conflict go hand in hand," he added. The ICG said that the nine-year-old Maoist insugency movement has claimed the lives of more than 10,000 and has imposed a "violent authoritarian regime by using extortion and coercion." Similarly, it said that state forces are also involved in systematic human rights violations ranging from extra-judicial executions to illegal detentions, disappearances and torture. The government has recently denied such allegations and has also taken action against troops involved in abuse over the last three years. No spokesman was available to speak to IRIN about the ICG report. With the 61st UN Human Rights Commission (CHR) already in session between 14 March and 22 April, the report focuses on the human rights situation since King Gyanendra assumed direct rule over the country on 1 February this year. "The report was published at a crucial time just before the CHR and also when international pressure on the Nepalese government has been taking place in some way or another," human rights activist Gauri Pradhan, told IRIN in Kathmandu. In the report, the ICG strongly recommends that the CHR pushes for the establishment of a UN human rights monitoring mission that could pave the way for lasting peace-building. In addition, it called upon the international community to speak with one voice on human rights. “The ICG report on Nepal's human rights crisis is meant to complement the more detailed reporting of specialist human rights organisations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch,” the group’s senior analyst, Rhoderick Chalmers, told IRIN. “As a conflict prevention organisation that works through field-based research and political analysis, our remit is somewhat different. We have tried to explain the broader importance of human rights as one of the building-blocks in a peace process and the political context within which the current rights violations are taking place,” Chalmers added. This report was primarily targeted at government policy-makers and it hopes to help those who are less familiar with Nepal to formulate a constructive approach to the current situation. The report has called upon the Nepalese government to end the suspension of fundamental rights of the citizens imposed by the state from 1 February. In early March, a senior government official told a local online news agency, Nepalnews, that there was no need for international rights monitoring in Nepal. However, human rights workers and journalists believe it is necessary, especially at a time when the state has imposed strict censorship on the media following the royal take-over and the declaration of a state of emergency. "Suspension of fundamental rights is not just a national concern. The international community should also help through their diplomacy with the government to restore the rights of the citizens, the same which has been strongly addressed by the report," Pradhan said. The international community has yet to respond to the report. "That will depend on whether the CHR results in a serious field of human rights monitoring presence. As our report makes clear, the international community has in the past been willing to accept hollow promises without insisting on concrete action," Chalmers maintained. The ICG said it hoped that member states of the CHR would concentrate on ensuring results and not just on the restoration of fundamental rights. "In addition, both armed parties in the conflict should fulfil their obligations under the international humanitarian law,” he said.