News Alerts – Nepal

The trend of migration from Nepal for foreign employment drastically surged in the first month (mid-July to mid-August) of the current fiscal year 2011/12. According to the Department of Foreign Employment, the number of Nepalis leaving the country for…

BIMAL GAUTAM

KATHMANDU, July 13: The newly drafted National Human Rights Commission bill, which is expected to pass into law shortly, has provisions for making human rights violators liable to pay compensation to their victims.

Provisions in Sub-Clauses 7 and 8 under Clause 17 of the NHRC Bill-2068 BS states that those involved in human rights violation deliberately or with ill intent have to pay compensation to the victims or their families as per the findings of the NHRC.

“A person who is found guilty of human rights violations has to pay cash compensation to the victim or victims from his or her salary or any other source of income,” reads the relevent provision.

The Dang District Court on Sunday convicted 10 people on the charge of raping an 18-year-old woman following her abduction in Tulsipur on June 29, 2010. Among the convicted seven are in police custody, while the remaining three are still at large.

The court handed out 10 years jail sentence and a fine of Rs 50,000 each to four of the defendants—Buddi Prakash KC, Sunil Wali, Yadav Tandan Khatri and Suresh KC—and prison term of two years each to Sachin Yogi, Krishna Sagar Wali and Minketan Giri. The court gave four years jail term and a fine of Rs 5,000 each to three absconding convicts—Nabin Basnet, Chandra BM and Rajiv Koirala—for aiding and abetting. 

Shahani Singh

UL 09 – It was in April this year when three worried adults in Humla submitted a letter of appeal to the Central Child Welfare Board (CCWB), a statutory body under the Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare. Humble words requested for help in repatriating girl children from Tamil Nadu, India- “…a place wherefrom it is impossible to learn of their well being and condition…and where our children have expressed over the telephone their inability to continue staying”-the letter states in Nepali.

Guardians Dhan Maya Lama, Saraswati Lama and Krishna Lama (names changed) of Humla had entrusted the responsibility of their children to a local politician in the year 2004, convinced of his promises to educate them in a boarding school in Kathmandu, away from the conflict-ridden place that Humla was in those years. But in the year 2006, the parents came to learn that their children had been taken all the way down to Tamil Nadu, and they were not even informed about it. “When he first took them, we gave him money for taking our children to a better place. But it has been seven years now and he refuses to bring them back to us,” said Dhan Maya over the telephone from Humla.

KATHMANDU, JUN 28 – The government of Nepal has continued to improve efforts to combat human trafficking despite limited resources, according to the 11th US Annual Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report.

However, the report released by the U.S. Department of State in Washington, says the country has not fully complied with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking.

According to a statement issued by Public Affairs Section at the US Embassy in Kathmandu, the report has cited the lack of proactive victim identification a persistent serious problem despite the establishment of Central Crime Investigation Bureau’s special unit to investigate trafficking.

NUWAKOT , JUL 06 – The District Police Office, Nuwakot, arrested Kale Tamang of Ghyangphedi VDC-7 in Nuwakot district, who was accused of smuggling more than 400 women and children at brothels in India.

According to Lal Bahdur Tamang of Shikharbesi, Tamang smuggled more than 400 women and children during 15 years period and police had been searching Tamang for three years.

Deputy Superintendent of Police, Bal Krishna Thapa said Tamang accepted that he smuggled only seven women.

No where in the world can one find an incumbent home minister pleading humiliatingly before the prime minister to allow his party activist face the legal prosecution, once circumstantial evidence proves the guilt.

By Hira Thapa

Nepal is perhaps one of the very few countries in the world where politicians have been enjoying privilege of impunity from prosecution for years. The plain truth is that only one politician, a former minister belonging to one of the major political parties, has so far been given jail sentence on charges of corruption. This may also sound incredible in a collapsing state where one after another scandal rocks the nation and hardly any influential person faces legal prosecution to be brought to book.

KATHMANDU: Nepal has continued to improve efforts to combat human trafficking despite limited resources, the 11th Annual Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report released in Washington on Monday said, pointing out that the government is yet to fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking.

Recommendations contained in the TIP Report aimed at improving Nepal’s anti-trafficking efforts include increased law enforcement efforts against all types of trafficking, including labour trafficking, and against government officials who are found to be complicit in trafficking; the establishment of a formal procedure to identify victims of trafficking and refer them to protection services; and the promotion of legal awareness programmes to potential trafficking victims and government officials, said the US Embassy in Kathmandu on Tuesday.