UNHRC doubts Nepal’s compliance
KATHMANDU, MAR 23 - The UN Human Rights Council questioned Nepal's compliance with recommendations of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) in a regular session in Geneva on Friday, dealing another blow to the country for its poor record of criminal prosecution of rights cases.
Earlier on Thursday, UN Human Rights Committee experts during its 110th session had expressed concerns over continued impunity for serious human rights violations, including war crimes, torture and enforced disappearance and the lack of accountability and reparation for victims.
Matt Pollard, International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) representative to the UN, raised the issue of Nepal's non-compliance with the key UPR recommendations, which Nepal accepted during the first cycle of review in March 2011. Nepal had accepted 56 recommendations during the session, with a vow to establish Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the Commission of Inquiry on Disappearances as stipulated by the Comprehensive Peace Agreement.
Nepal had also agreed to reform its penal codes and procedures, enact laws criminalising the offence of torture and enforced disappearance in line with international standards, among others.
“Nepal has failed to establish a credible transitional justice mechanism and failed to take meaningful measures to investigate human rights violations and abuses that arose during the armed conflict,” Pollard told the session.
The UPR is a process to examine overall records of the human rights and compliance of the UN member countries every four years.
The member states are given an opportunity to declare what actions they have taken to improve the human rights situations to fulfil their universal obligations.
Pollard criticised Nepal for tabling the same Ordinance in the Legislature-Parliament despite the Supreme Court declaring it faulty. “Despite this clear ruling, the government reintroduced the Ordinance, with no amendments, in the Legislative-Parliament,” he said.
On January last year, the SC had ordered the government to form two separate commissions—Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the Commission on Enforced Disappearances. The court also scrapped the provisions of amnesty to serious crimes, 35-day limitation for registering case and also ordered the government to criminalise serious human rights violations.
However, Nepal insisted that it remained committed to recommendations it had accepted during its review.
“The recommendations had already been mainstreamed in the National Action Plan for human rights and reforms to several legal bills had already been offered to parliament,” Nepal said in its reply.
It also told the session that it has been making “substantial progress in reforming its national legal system in civil, penal and procedural matters and the criminal justice system is being ameliorated.”
“The image Nepal earned in the 1990s by signing major rights conventions is being dented by government’s indifference towards rights violations over the period,” said Shushil Pyakurel, former member of National Human Rights Commission.
He warned that country’s deteriorating image in the international arena could result in trust deficit, leaving bilateral and multilateral assistance to the country at risk.
Earlier on Thursday, UN Human Rights Committee experts during its 110th session had expressed concerns over continued impunity for serious human rights violations, including war crimes, torture and enforced disappearance and the lack of accountability and reparation for victims.
Matt Pollard, International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) representative to the UN, raised the issue of Nepal's non-compliance with the key UPR recommendations, which Nepal accepted during the first cycle of review in March 2011. Nepal had accepted 56 recommendations during the session, with a vow to establish Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the Commission of Inquiry on Disappearances as stipulated by the Comprehensive Peace Agreement.
Nepal had also agreed to reform its penal codes and procedures, enact laws criminalising the offence of torture and enforced disappearance in line with international standards, among others.
“Nepal has failed to establish a credible transitional justice mechanism and failed to take meaningful measures to investigate human rights violations and abuses that arose during the armed conflict,” Pollard told the session.
The UPR is a process to examine overall records of the human rights and compliance of the UN member countries every four years.
The member states are given an opportunity to declare what actions they have taken to improve the human rights situations to fulfil their universal obligations.
Pollard criticised Nepal for tabling the same Ordinance in the Legislature-Parliament despite the Supreme Court declaring it faulty. “Despite this clear ruling, the government reintroduced the Ordinance, with no amendments, in the Legislative-Parliament,” he said.
On January last year, the SC had ordered the government to form two separate commissions—Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the Commission on Enforced Disappearances. The court also scrapped the provisions of amnesty to serious crimes, 35-day limitation for registering case and also ordered the government to criminalise serious human rights violations.
However, Nepal insisted that it remained committed to recommendations it had accepted during its review.
“The recommendations had already been mainstreamed in the National Action Plan for human rights and reforms to several legal bills had already been offered to parliament,” Nepal said in its reply.
It also told the session that it has been making “substantial progress in reforming its national legal system in civil, penal and procedural matters and the criminal justice system is being ameliorated.”
“The image Nepal earned in the 1990s by signing major rights conventions is being dented by government’s indifference towards rights violations over the period,” said Shushil Pyakurel, former member of National Human Rights Commission.
He warned that country’s deteriorating image in the international arena could result in trust deficit, leaving bilateral and multilateral assistance to the country at risk.
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