DR DINESH BHATTARAI
Despite declaring caste discrimination an unlawful act in Nepal, cases of such discrimination have continued to haunt the people from the lower caste.
Manju Rasaili who had tied inter-caste nuptial knot around 14 years ago has now become hapless after her husband left her and married with another woman.
Rasaili of Chainpur VDC-1 of Bajhang who tied nuptial knot with Dhan Prakash Giri of Lamatola VDC-6 of her own district in 2054 B.S is now passing her life in a miserable condition.
A group of human rights defenders have sent an open letter to the government and political leaders warning that Nepal is descending towards “full-spectrum impunity” for human rights abuses committed during the country’s decade long armed conflict.
In a letter issued on Friday, INSEC, ICJ, FORHID and other defenders expressed worry that frequent calls for action to end impunity, both from within and outside of Nepal, have failed to yield concrete results.
“The failure to address ongoing impunity violates people’s rights to truth, justice, remedy and reparations. It is also causing long-term damage to the rule of law in the country,” read the letter.
After all mechanisms in Nepal failed to deliver justice to the family of Tej Bhandari, a victim of enforced disappearance, his family has knocked at the doors of UN Human Rights Committee (HRC) in Geneva.
Coinciding with the International Human Rights Day, Swiss Association against Impunity (TRIAL), a Geneva-based international impunity watchdog, took the case to HRC urging justice to the family. TRIAL lodged an application at the committee on behalf of Ram, son of Tej Bhandari, who was reportedly arrested and disappeared by police in Dec. 2001. According to TRIAL, Bhandari was summoned by the Chief District Officer in Besisahar of Lamjung district, in Dec. 2001. Upon arrival at the bus station, a group took him under control and thrashed. Bhandari was reportedly pushed into a police van and taken away to an unknown destination.
After a string of news reports on the exploitation and the great hardships of Nepali women domestic workers (housemaids) in the Gulf countries, the government started restricting the movement of Nepali women into the Gulf from early 2009. But implementing such a restriction was always going to be tricky as of every 100 Nepalis who enter the workforce each year, 75 leave for abroad, with women comprising a bigger and bigger share of this figure each passing year. Despite the risks involved, many Nepali women continue to be lured by lucrative Gulf destinations like Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.
The state has long been in a fix. Does it have the right to curtail the voluntary movement of women? (The 2007 Foreign Employment Act forbids gender-based discrimination against women who want to work abroad.) If not, would it not be a better option to better regulate women migration to the Gulf rather than cut it out outright, which, as is proving to be the case, is a near- impossible task? Despite government restrictions, Nepali women continue to go to the Gulf, mostly through Indian backchannels. Although just 23,000 women are registered with the government as working in the Gulf, unofficial estimates put the number at closer to 200,000. It is thus clear that that the number of undocumented women migrant workers (WMWs) has increased tremendously which makes any kind of oversight on them very difficult.
In recent years, Nepal has lost the glory it once enjoyed in the international arena for its endemic corruption and impunity. While the world is marking International Anti-Corruption Day, rising incidences of corruption raise fears that the country will become a failed state.
International graft watchdog Transparency International (TI) has indicated that both the government and the political parties have paid no heed to digging out the causes behind the growing corruption. TI ranked Nepal 146th out of 178 countries, three notches down from last year, in terms of transparency. Just two years ago, Nepal had ranked 121st on the anti-corruption scale. That’s enough to understand how corruption is thriving in Nepal.
Many blame political instability for the abuse of state funds, which is partly true; but there are other structural and cultural reasons. The major reasons behind the growing corruption are the government’s delay in appointing commissioners at the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) and in electing people’s representatives at the local bodies. The CIAA’s ability has been affected by the fact that, for more than a year, the agency has been without a chief commissioner and other commissioners.
In May this year, the government made a big show when Nepal ratified the UN Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities, as well as its Optional Protocol. The government was expected to guarantee disabled Nepali citizens their rights as dictated by the UN after the ratification. A big statement, one could say, given the nature of our government. And stories from the visually-impaired relegate this pompous statement to pure inaction in implementing the Convention.
Nineteen-year-old Manil Maharjan, a plus-two graduate, faces major challenges in getting enrolled in a university as he is partially blind. Manil had access to Braille only up to grade six and was abandoned by his school thereon. “There aren’t enough books with Braille and Digital Accessible Information System (DAISY), and I have suffered because of that,” he says. “My brothers and sisters would read aloud for me to catch up with my studies after grade seven.” School officials did not help him at all; he was made to take written tests on his own without the help of a substitute writer. But despite the indifference, he managed to score well consistently.
The government for the first time has readied a national action plan to ensure women’s participation in every step of the peace process as well as to meet the United Nation Security Council’s (UNSC) resolution on women and peace and security.
The 18-member steering committee headed by Deputy Prime Minster Sujata Koirala has already approved the plan. It will soon be forwarded to the Cabinet for its approval, according to officials.
Once the Cabinet endorses the document, each ministry will devise a five-year implementation plan to ensure meaningful participation of women in the decision-making level and women’s security, among others.
Subjected to gender-based violence, life for Ramita Khanal (name changed) was no better than a nightmare until a few years ago. Heavy doses of violence had such an impact on her that she now tends to abhor all the…