News Alerts – Nepal

Presentation made by Lal Wijenayake, Chairman of the Public Representations Committee on Constitutional Reforms at a seminar organized by the South Asians for Human Rights (SAHR) held in Kathmandu, Nepal on ‘Citizens’ participation in Constitutional making’ Constitution of a…

BHUSAN YADAV

BIRGUNJ, OCT 12 –
The Parsa District Attorney’s Office (DAO) has exonerated Minister for Land Reforms and Management Prabhu Sah, who has been linked with the murder of Hindu Yuba Sangh leader Kashi Tiwari.
The DAO on Wednesday issued a chargesheet against four people—Shiyaram Kushawaha, Aman Kushawaha, Baliram Sah and Mukesh Saraf—but not Sah, who allegedly plotted Tiwari’s murder.
Two motorcycle-borne assailants had shot dead Tiwari on June 27, 2010 at Ashokbatika in Birgunj Municipality.

Twelve women were killed and 27 others tortured by their family members in Nepal in the month of September this year, according to a non-governmental organisation (NGO)that monitors incidents of violence against women.

In its monthly report, Women Rehabilitation Centre (WOREC), however, said that incidents of violence against women have decreased in the month of September in comparison to the number of incidents of violence against women in the month of August.

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) wishes to express its concern regarding the Attorney General of Nepal’s recent announcement that the government is preparing to go ahead with its plan to withdraw cases filed against members of the Maoist and Madesh movements.
This announcement comes in the wake of an agreement signed between the Maoist party and the United Democratic Madhesi Front prior to the election of Baburam Bhattarai as the Prime Minister of Nepal in which both parties have agreed to withdraw cases pending against those involved in the Maoist party, the Madhesi, Janajati, Tharuhat, Dalit, and Pichadabarga movements.

DAMAKANT JAYSHI

The new Attorney-General Mukti Pradhan is the latest among those who want “politically motivated” cases against Maoist cadres withdrawn.
“All politically motivated and baseless cases against Maoists will be withdrawn, including cases against leaders and cadres of Madhesi parties,” Pradhan told media persons at an interaction program in the capital on Tuesday.

KATHMANDU, Sept 6: The owner of Sakura Foundation Private Limited, also known as Sakura Japanese Language School, has allegedly swindled huge amount of money from at least half a dozen jobless Nepali youths.
Pandav Raj Karki, the chairman of the language institute, has gone out of contact after collecting a staggering amount of money from 17 jobless youths.

DR GOPAL KRISHNA SIWAKOTI

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.

Nepal needs to develop strategies, plans, and programmes to make optimum use of its own natural resources and thus avoid so much dependency on foreign aid. To bring about a lasting solution to the country’s problems, the connections between poverty, poor governance, and marginalization need to be carefully and urgently addressed.

Dr. Gyan Basnet

Development implies an intention to free people from overarching dependency and to replace it with self-reliance. But in contrast, it is a well-known fact that the debt repayment obligation of many developing countries has exceeded by far their ability to pay, and most of these countries have high poverty rates and face many serious social, economic, and political problems. Nepal is a country that has a huge foreign debt burden, and its total budget for development is dependent on the foreign aid, loans and the goodwill of donor bodies. Every year the dependency increases. So its people are caught in a poverty trap and, despite 40 years of planning and development effort, 45 per cent of its population today have an income of less than one US dollar a day. Poverty reduction should be the overarching goal of development, but Nepal’s efforts in that direction over the past five decades have failed to improve living standards.