Nepal's human rights situation and role of international community
By Advocate Dinesh Tripathi
There is growing human rights and humanitarian crisis in Nepal with the situation getting from bad to worse. The rule of law is totally non-existent and there is total non-compliance of the international human rights and humanitarian laws in Nepal.
In our brief exercise of the parliamentary system, we ratified all major international human rights instruments but now they are fully disrespected and disregarded by the state institutions. The king has left no stone unturned to perpetuate his direct, personal and military-backed rule, making a systematic attack on the constitution, nakedly violating the very spirit and letter of the constitution.
He declared himself the chairman of the Council of Minister and assumed full executive power.
The media, too, has been attacked systematically with mid-night raids on FM radio stations; the right to protest and dissent is fully denied which is the hallmark of any democratic society. In Nepal, FM radios are the cheapest and quickest source of information for the illiterate and rural society. A large number of journalists face harassment and detention from state institutions and security forces. Recently, a "black ordinance" was introduced to curb media freedom, in direct violation of the constitution.
Although the constitution was not formally scrapped, series of executive orders and ordinances were issued to undermine and supersede the constitution. Freedom of assembly is prohibited. Political parties are not allowed to carry out their legitimate activities guaranteed under the constriction and international human rights laws. Security forces enjoy full impunity. They are allowed to arrest and kill people. Nepal is the country of largest number of disappearances by the state. Death, disappearance and torture have become the order of the day. State agencies are exercising enormous power virtually with no accountability. There is total breakdown of the rule of law in Nepal.
Although the Maoists, too, have not worked as a responsible political force, have committed a lot of atrocities and crimes against the people and violated the international humanitarian laws, they had shown some flexibility by declaring a ceasefire. It was a positive step from their side. But king and his army did not reciprocate the ceasefire. The behaviour and attitude of the king shows that he wants to empower the army rather than the people and that he does not want a negotiated settlement. And now it has also become clear that peace is not his real agenda. His real agenda is only to perpetuate and consolidate his autocratic power base.
The king is the biggest roadblock for peace and democracy in Nepal and now it has become crystal clear that monarchy and democracy cannot go together.
There is strong need to intensify the people's movement in Nepal. But strong international support is also the need of the hour. This is the era of global wave of human rights and democracy. Human rights and democracy are no longer domestic issues. They are universal issues.
Nepal's human rights crisis is in urgent label. The international community must address it urgently and effectively. Only soft and cosmetic approach is not going to solve the problem. Nepal needs effective international action. The democratic world should cut off all kind of engagement with the royal military regime of Nepal. No aid should be provided to the military regime for it lacks legitimacy and accountability. Likewise "smart sanction" should be imposed against the royal military government and it's officials.
Since war crimes and crimes against humanity are taking place but the national judicial system has failed to address the growing culture of impunity in Nepal as the royal government openly violates court orders, the International Criminal Court must be allowed to play its role. There must be a zero tolerance for crimes against humanity. So in order to end impunity and make the perpetrators accountable for their action, the ICC must be allowed to conduct trials.
The international community should also come forward and play a positive role to restore human rights, peace and democracy in Nepal. The international media can also play a positive role. But there is very little international media attention towards Nepal.
TALK ON �HUMAN RIGHTS CRISIS IN NEPAL� IN PETESBURGH, USA
Pittsburgh, USA, Feb. 28
Speaking on the issue of �Human Rights crisis in Nepal � Supreme Court Advocate of Nepal Dinesh Tripathi spoke that�There is worsening human rights crisis in Nepal. Nepal�s human rights problem is now reached in crisis stage. There is ongoing political repression, turtore and illegal detention in Nepal. Massive and systematic violation of human rights and humanitarian law is taking place in Nepal. There is total breakdown of rule of law in Nepal and all the basic rights including freedom of speech and rights to information has also denied. Political parties are not allowing to carryout their peaceful activities. There is ongoing repression and harassment on media and civil society. Common Article 3 of Geneva convention which is applicable in internal armed conflict (non-international armed conflict) is completely neglected by state institutions. War crime and crime against humanity is continuously taking place in a massive scale. Rebel Maoist is also fail to abide by norms of International humanitarian law. They are also targeting innocent civilian and killing people. Nepal is rapidly heading toward fail state. King�s pro-military and anti people repressive road map is the root cause of problem. King want to consolidate his personal power base at the cost of people and Nation. International community is also fail to address growing human rights and humanitarian crisis of Nepal. Nepal is going to be a worst humanitarian crisis and disaster in contemporary world if world community is fail to address it properly and effectively. Lack of strong will and apathy is a basic cause of it. Democratic world should adopt a strategy to isolate royal military regime from world community. World body must adopt hard and effective measure to exert deep pressure on royal military regime of Nepal. International aid must be channeled through NGO rather than government because unelected government has no legitimacy to receive international aid and since regime is not accountable towards people so money will be totally misused. Although Nepal has not ratify the Rome statute of International criminal court but impunity should not allow at any cost. So UN Security Council should take special initiative and adopt measures under Rome statute to conduct trial against perpetrator of human rights violator of Nepal. Any Person or authority that had committed crime against humanity and war crime must not be go free or immune from criminal responsibility. International civil society and international legal community must exert a deep pressure for it.
General secretary of International Association for Democratic lawyer Jenny Mire also spoke that�Human rights crisis in Nepal is really serious and complex. International community should come up with appropriate and effective strategy to address it. Human rights issue is matter of international concern and no country is allowing denying basic rights of its people. We will find a ways and means to address a human rights crisis in Nepal. Nepal deserves international support.
Co-ordinater of international committee of National lawyers Guild Steve Goldberg also spoke that�We should not hesitate to extend our support and solidarity to human rights struggle of Nepal. Nepal�s human rights crisis is matter of international concern and international community must play an active role to establish human rights and democracy in Nepal.
International symposium was organized by International Law society and Center for International legal education in Petsburgh, USA to discuss various Global human rights issue and probelom. Human rights of Haiti, Vietnam and role of UN including Nepal were discussed in the Symposium. Full session were devoted to �human rights crisis in Nepal� Symposium were well attended by lawyers, Civil rights activist, Law professors and media people from various part of USA.
Likewise national conference of International committee of National lawyers guild were also held in perttesburgh. There was also a special session on Nepal. Advocate Dinesh Tripathi spoke in conference and appeal that�International legal community must come forward to establish rule of law and extend its expertise and experience to take legal action at international level to Perpetrator of human rights violator of Nepal. International legal networking can play an important role. US lawyers show their legal fraternity toward Nepali legal community. Justice is the collective responsibility.
Special resolution were adopted by conference which demanded full respect of human rights of Nepali people and respect rule of law Nepali authority must be abide by International human rights and humanitarian law. Likewise it also demanded to release of all political detainees and stop intimidation and harassment media, civil society. And political parties.
Meeting also theoretically agrees to establish Special task force of lawyer to work on Nepal issue at international label to address growing human rights crisis in Nepal. Procedure and modality of the task force will agree to work out and adopted by next meeting.
TALK ON �HUMAN RIGHTS IN NEPAL AND ROLE OF INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY�
FEB 20, BALTIMORE, USA
Talk programs was organized on � human rights situation in Nepal and role of international community� in Baltimore, USA By International Student Association. Advocate Dinesh Tripathi was invited as a guest speaker to speak on occasion. He delivered his talk on well-attended meeting. He spoke on occasion�There is growing human rights and humanitarian crisis in Nepal. Human rights situation is getting bad to worse. Rule of law is totally non-existent in Nepal. There is total non-compliances of rule International human rights law and international humanitarian law in Nepal. In our brief exercise of parliamentary history of we ratified all the major international human rights instruments but now those norms are fully disrespected and disregarded by state institution. King has left no stone unturned to perpetuate his direct, personal and military backed rule. King made a systematic attack on constitution. He nakedly violated the very spirit and letter of constitution and fully acted against the vision and command of constitution. He declared himself a chairman of the council of minister and assumes or grabs executive power. It is an attack on the very heart and soul of constitution. Systamatic attack is also going on against media. Right to protest and dissent is fully denied which is the hallmark of any democratic society. There was a mid-night attack in FM radios. In Nepal FM radios are the cheapest and quickest source of information in illiterate and rural society. Large number of journalist is facing harassments and detention from state institution and security force. Recently black ordinance was introduced to curb media freedom, ordinance which supercede the constitution. Although constitution was not formally withdrawn but series of executive order and ordinance were issued to undermine and supercede the constitution. Freedom of assembly is prohibited. Political parties are not allowing to carryout their legitimate activities guaranteed under constriction and international human rights law. Security forces are working with full impunity. They are allowing to arrest and kill people. Nepal is the country of largest number of disappeareance. Death, disappearance and torture have become routine life of the country. State agencies are exercising enormous power virtually with no accountability. There is total breakdown of ruke of law in Nepal. Although Maoist is also not worked as a responsible political force and they have also committed a lot of atrocities and crime against people and violating the international humanitarian law. But they had shown some flexibility and declared ceasefire. It was a positive step from their side and started to recognize changing needs of time. But king and his army did not reciprocate the declaration. The behavior and attitude of the king shows that king want to empower the army rather than people and he does not want negotiated settlement and now it has also become clear that peace is not his real agenda. His real and hidden agenda is only to perpetuate and consolidate his autocratic power base. King is the biggest roadblock for peace and democracy. Now it has become crystal clear that king and democracy cannot go together. There is no meeting ground between king�s military roadmap and democratic aspiration of Nepali people.
There is strong need to intensify peoples movement in Nepal. There is no alternative of mass movement. But strong international support is also the need of hour. This is the era of global wave of human rights and democracy. Human rights and democracy is no longer the matter of domestic issue. Under the present and changing notion of international law human rights has no border and it is trans- border and trans- national issue. It is the universal aspiration of people not only privileged or rich and industrialized countries but each country and each people. Nepal�s human rights crisis is in urgent label. International community must address it urgently and effectively. Only soft and cosmetic approach is not going to solve the problem. Nepal needs effective international action. Democratic world should cut off all kind of engagement with royal military regime of Nepal. Aid should not be given to the military regime because it has no legitimacy and accountability. So democratic world should work with people and community rather than government. So all the aid should channel through NGO rather than government in Nepal. People are themselves able in Nepal to take care of things. Likewise targeted sanction should be done against Royal military government and it�s officials. International criminal court must be allowed to take jurisdiction in Nepal. Since war crime and crime against humanity is taking place in Nepal and national judicial system is fail to address growing culture of impunity in Nepal. In addition to that authority of national judicial institutions is seriously undermined in Nepal because government in Nepal largely violates order of the court. There must be a zero tolerance for crime against humanity and torture. Torture, killing and rape should not be tolerated and allowed in any circumstances. So in order to end impunity and make the perpetrator accountable for their action international criminal court must be allowed to conduct trial. International civil society should also come forward and also play a positive role to restore human rights, peace and democracy in Nepal. In this era of global civil society reach and influence of civil society is enourmous. International media can also play a positive role. But there is very little media attention is shown toward Nepal. As an individual everybody in this room can also make a difference you can write a letter to your senator and congressman and urge them to speak strongly about Nepal. Since US is one of the oldest democracy in the world so I hope your representative would be bound to listen you and they respond and respect your feeling. Likewise you can also write a letter to the editor in the local media and you can draw the attention.
President of International Student Association Mary Poulin introduce the guest speaker and express full support and solidarity for democratic and human rights struggle of Nepal. Vice president of organization Olena Vashchenko presented a slide show about Nepal on the occasion. 
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