DR GOPAL KRISHNA SIWAKOTI
The extension of the mandate of the UN rights body – Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) – is critical for a sustained support to the rights- and justice-related transitional management in Nepal. The OHCHR’s time-tested expertise is crucial not only to enhance efforts to work quickly and effectively in re-establishing the rule of law and the administration of transitional justice but also to support fragile domestic institutions and lend assistance to build peace and capacitate the state in putting forth a long-term domestically-owned and nurtured human rights protection regime.
Assistance in training, advising, monitoring and generating programs and resources for rule of law and human rights safeguards initiatives especially the “peace-through-justice” program as well as devising an effective and legitimate transitional justice policy for the prevention of future human rights abuses is an unparalleled task that the OHCHR could accomplish. OHCHR is constitutionally-mandated to monitor the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) and it deserves a graceful exit only after the peace process is completed.
CK LAL
In a deed that Ramraja Prasad Singh would later describe as “fanciful dash to score immortality at the martyrdom,” Durganand Jha threw a bomb in 1961 at the vehicle of King Mahendra in Janakpur. Even back then, the Nepal Police was no more or less efficient than it is now. Jha could have remained in self-exile or chosen an underground identity like many of his seniors in Nepali Congress and the Nepal Communist Party.
He bravely submitted himself to justice and was given death penalty by the trial court on Bhadra 19. When it was found that Brahmins were exempted from capital punishment according to provisions of over a century old Muluki Ain, the civil code was hastily amended. The term came into currency later, but Martyr Durganand was one of the first of many victims of ‘judicial killing’ during three decades of royal Panchayat rule.
BANGALORE: Amnesty International may soon set up shop in India.
At a lecture on ‘Whether India could become a global leader in the area of human rights’ organized by the Tata Energy Research Institute (TERI) on Saturday, Salil Shetty, secretary general, Amnesty International, listed the issues India faced despite managing to retain a host of vital institutions and a powerful Constitution.
He pointed out the increasingly entrenched divide between different communities in some parts of the country, the lopsided economic growth and, most of all, the inability of the Indian establishment to translate intent into reality.
”Amnesty has been involved with India for a long time. It was involved even during the Emergency when JP was a prisoner of conscience. Most of Amnesty’s work is done out of London, but the organization will soon operate out of India. You’d normally be wary of an organization with the word ‘International’ in the title — it usually means it’s North dominated. But Amnesty is different. It’s a membership-driven, democratic organization and all representatives are elected. We accept neither government aid nor corporate contributions. One of our most important tasks in India would be outreach,” he said.
The Tenth session of the Legislature-Parliament, which began early May, and continued during the month of June and July, is still in session. Altogether 17 meetings were convened in July. The major highlights of those meetings are as follows:…
The Tenth session of the Legislature-Parliament, which began early May, continued during the whole month of June and is still in session. After the deadline of the Constituent Assembly (CA) was extended in May 28, the first meeting commenced…
The month of May began with the new session of the Legislature-Parliament. The Tenth session commenced on Monday, 2 May 2011, and is still in session. As many as 13 meetings were convened;1 the major highlights of these 13…
The 12-point agreement concluded between the Seven Party Alliance (SPA) and the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) [UCPN (M)] on 22 November 2005 forms the basis of the ongoing peace process in Nepal. It was the 12-point agreement that…