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YY pbk Main Reading Room. To date, there has been no exhumation of the remains of the fifth body. How the investigations will proceed from here is not clear and the NHRC has articulated no clear strategy on how to move forward, at least not publicly. Police told Human Rights Watch that they could not proceed with the investigation including questioning any alleged suspects until they received DNA results. In December , Maj. Niranjan Basnet, one of the accused in the February murder of year-old Maina Sunuwar in army custody case 31 , was repatriated by the Nepal government from peacekeeping duties in Chad at the request of the UN.
In February , a police warrant had been executed for his arrest.
Ending the culture of impunity in Nepal
However, upon his arrival back in Nepal, the army immediately took Major Basnet under its control and he never reported to the police to face the charges levelled against him. The Nepal Army ignored an initial order from the prime minister and appeals from the UN secretary-general and the NHRC for it to comply with the court order. The Nepal Army is not formally challenging this Supreme Court decision but it is undermining the rule of law by not cooperating with the Kavre District Court. The promotion and subsequent appointment of Maj.
Toran Bahadur Singh as acting army chief in October is another example. As commander of the 10th Brigade, Singh was accused of involvement in cases of enforced disappearances and custodial torture in the notorious Maharajgunj barracks in Kathmandu in and The Foksingtar police subsequently cordoned off the area with a rope, but failed to deploy police to protect the site. The government has drafted and revised two bills to establish a TRC and a commission of inquiry into enforced disappearances.
In April , the government proposed both bills in Parliament. The government has included in the TRC bill a provision that the TRC is to seek assistance from the government in providing security to victims and witnesses. This provision remains in the bill even though justice advocates have argued that separate, more detailed legislation is needed to better address victim and witness protection.
The Disappearances Commission bill would criminalize enforced disappearances but its definition of enforced disappearances is not in line with international standards. F [13] F The proposed maximum punishment of seven years provided for in the bill is also insufficient in cases where the offense constitutes a crime against humanity or war crime.
At this writing, these bills have not been debated, and the drafts are before the Legislative Committee, which is considering further proposed amendments to the texts. In the meantime, a number of other initiatives are underway.
- Advocacy Forum-Nepal :: Publications :: Impunity Reports?
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In cooperation with the UN Development Program, the government has drafted a criminal procedure code and a penal code, though these have not been submitted to Parliament. Articles and of the draft penal code recognize enforced disappearances as a crime and impose a maximum penalty of 15 years. This conflicts with the maximum seven-year punishment provided for in the draft Disappearances Commission bill.
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The draft penal code recognizes torture as a crime, but does not define it. It also gives victims only six months within which to file cases. Human Rights Watch and Advocacy Forum are urging the UN, as part of a wider exit strategy, to develop an action plan to address impunity. Such a strategy should include the establishment of effective transitional justice mechanisms to deal with crimes of the past and comprehensive reform of national laws and institutions to better deal with past, current, and possible future crimes.
The office no longer has the authority to visit places of detention without prior permission. Despite being a constitutional body under the interim constitution, the NHRC continues to lack independence and is regularly criticised for failing to secure police and army compliance with its recommendations.
The impunity with which government security forces and Maoist cadres operated during the armed conflict continues today. Many of these deaths occurred in the context of a more aggressive policing policy in the southern Terai districts where criminal activity by armed groups is a serious problem. This chapter documents developments in three emblematic recent homicide cases—one implicating the police, one the Nepal Army, one the UCPN-M—that demonstrate that many of the same impediments to justice are still at work.
Even if FIRs are registered, police do not rigorously pursue the cases, particularly when other police officers are implicated in the crimes.
Ending the culture of impunity in Nepal | Jagannath Lamichhane | Opinion | The Guardian
As mentioned above, authorities sometimes set up investigative commissions but those continue to produce no results and serve mainly as temporary distractions. Police officers fail to seek court sanctions in part because they know the Nepal Army and Maoists will not cooperate with investigations. In the meantime, there have been concerns about continued insecurity, especially in the southern Terai region, home to the majority of the Madheshi communities.
There are no indications human rights have been incorporated into the new policy. The following homicide cases show the obstacles, many of them rooted in practices dating from the armed conflict period, that continue to impede justice where the alleged perpetrators are police, soldiers, or members of the UCPN-M. The versions of events given by the survivors and by the army differ drastically.
The Nepal Army claims that the three victims were killed during an exchange of gunfire with armed poachers. Two survivors claim that the women were part of an unarmed group of villagers collecting kaulo medicinal tree bark when about 17 army personnel surrounded them and opened fire, resulting in the three deaths.
The post-mortem reports state that all three victims were shot from behind from a distance. On March 12, the Bardiya police went to the crime scene to investigate. With the help of Advocacy Forum, the husband of one of the women registered a FIR against 17 army personnel and four forestry officials on March The government has ignored local and international calls for investigations and prosecutions into the case. An investigation committee led by an assistant attorney general was set up to look into the incident on March 17, It submitted its report to the government on April 19, The government subsequently appointed a minister-level committee to study its findings.
F [24] F At this writing, it has not made the findings public or reported on the implementation of any recommendations. So far as we have been able to determine, there has been no further investigation into the case. In the evening, his family and some villagers went to the police station, requesting his release. According to the family, the ASI said that Dharmendra would be released the next day at 8 a. While they were at the police station, the family could hear the boy crying out to them saying that the police had aimed rifles at him and threatened to shoot him.
The family left the police station at about When the family members reached the hospital, they found that the boy was already dead. Dharmendra Barai who died in police custody in July Photograph taken at the hospital morgue. The hospital record reads "Brought dead. Another suspect detained in the same cell as Dharmendra told Advocacy Forum that he himself was tortured by the police with electric shock treatment that night. He could not say for certain that Dharmendra faced the same treatment, but he said that when police eventually released them from their cell, Dharmendra fell to the ground and started emitting froth from his mouth.
The other detainee says he has suffered serious mental problems since his detention. Amid outcry and persistent calls for justice by civil society organizations, both the national and local government set up investigations. On July 18, , the Home Ministry formed a three-member investigation team, including a senior Home Ministry official, a senior police officer, and a member of the National Investigation Department.
The team visited the incident site and investigated the case. However, as of late November , they had not published a report. On August 3, , the investigation team set up by the district administration made its report public. The report concluded that the cause of death was unknown and that there was insufficient evidence to prove that torture was the cause of death. It said police had failed in their duty to take Dharmendra for a medical check-up on his arrest and to notify higher authorities of his arrest.
It also noted that detention facilities at the police office were inadequate and badly ventilated.
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The report recommended that the government provide the family with adequate compensation, and that departmental action be taken against the police officers of the concerned police station. The government has not provided the family with compensation, apart from Rs. The case is pending in court, and no disciplinary action has been taken.
According to Hariram, the police also offered to recruit his older brother into the police force if he dropped the FIR. The DPO replied that it was under internal discussion. At the time of this writing, the relatives await a court ruling. According to investigations by OHCHR, there are credible allegations he died due to severe ill-treatment at the site. Police arrested one of them and put him in pre-trial detention, but the other four are at large. This report was preceded by two joint reports, Waiting for Justice: Clive Baldwin, senior legal advisor, provided legal review.
Production assistance was provided by Jake Scobey-Thal, associate in the Asia division; Kathy Mills, publications coordinator; and Fitzroy Hepkins, production manager. Thanks go to all the individuals who offered assistance, analysis, or information that made this report possible.
We particularly wish to thank the families of victims who shared their experiences with us. Several of their names do not appear in this report at their request because they feared reprisals. Nepal , Communication No. OpenDocument accessed October 19, It lapsed as a law in the absence of Parliament but was re-promulgated as a royal decree from October It was not renewed after it lapsed in September and is no longer in force.
Skip to main content. Map of Nepal Summary It sends the wrong message to the public when authorities involved in a criminal investigation remain indifferent to its progress. It also mortifies common people's desire to see justice done promptly. The delay in investigation becomes advantageous to the criminal because he can find an easy way to conceal the evidence.