Frequent arguments I heard as a child between Saane, our tenant, and his wife still echo in my mind, even after 26 years. I used to ask mom—”Why does Saane, the rickshaw-puller, have to drink and batter his wife…
KATHMANDU, DEC 03 –
Representatives of persons with disabilities (PWDs) in Nepal have called for the implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disability (UNCRPD).
Marking the International Day of Persons with Disability on Friday with the theme “Keeping the promise: Mainstreaming disability in the Millennium Development Goals towards 2015 and Beyond,” they demanded formulation of national policies as per the convention’s principles. “The implementation of the UNCRPD can begin with ensuring the rights of PWDs in the new constitution which will open doors for the formulation of new policies and regulations,” said Birendra Raj Pokhrel, President of the National Federation of the Disabled-Nepal (NFDN).
By Joanna Jolly
Parliament in Nepal is considering a bill raising the legal age of marriage from 18 to 20 which officials say would help improve maternal health.
Nepal has reduced its maternal mortality rate by half over the past 10 years but the number of women dying in childbirth is still very high.
Officials also say the new legislation would help reduce teenage pregnancies.
Women living with disability say they feel left out in the cold for want of legal protection, thereby hindering their empowerment.
Representatives of women with disability say lack of a clear law regarding the rights of physically challenged women and some of the defamatory legal provisions regarding the marital and reproductive rights of disabled women have impeded their progress. Besides, the use of derogatory terms for people with disability in general and women in particular have hurt their dignity, they maintain.
“The Disabled Protection and Welfare Act 1982 has terms like “aandho/aandhi” (blind) and “langaado” (one with deformed leg) which are derogatory and needs to be replaced by respectful terms,” said Tika Dahal, president of Nepal Disabled Women Association.
67 Nepali workers have been held hostage in Libya for demanding a pay-hike in Libya, Kantipur daily reported.
The workers working for a real estate and construction company in Libya had been on a strike since 18 days, when company authorities locked them up inside their common residence on Thursday.
“The company officials have padlocked the main gate of the camp we are staying in on Thursday,” said Briddhi Limbu, one of the suffering migrant workers, over the phone. “Three of us managed to escape and contact you.”
According to Limbu, the company had been paying them less than the promised salary and asked them to leave at their own cost when they demanded a pay-hike.
KATHMANDU, SEP 16 –
The European Commission Directorate-General for Humanitarian Aid (ECHO) has provided US $ 1.14 million to combat food insecurity in Mid-Western Nepal.
A press statement issued by the World Food Programme (WFP) on Thursday said that the money was provided to the WFP Nepal to procure nearly 900 metric tones of rice to meet the short-term hunger needs of 61,000 people living in Karnali region, the most food insecure area in Nepal.
Nicolas Oberlin, Deputy Country Director of WFP Nepal said in the release, “Recent shocks such as unpredictable weather patterns, crop failures, and increasing food prices have worsened the situation in the Karnali region.”
KATHMANDU, SEP 16 –
The blame game between two National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) commissioners and officials has reached saturation point.
To counter the accusation of irregularity in the country’s leading rights body made by commissioners Lila Pathak and KB Rokaya against a few officials, the latter organising a press meet on Thursday charged that the commissioners misused their authority.
NHRC Secretary Bishal Khanal said the commissioners were trying to tarnish the dignity and image of the autonomous rights watchdog by making baseless accusation.
“Pathak and Rokaya, going beyond the NHRC code of conduct, are solely motivated in creating illusion among the general public,” said Khanal.
RUDRA KHADKA
NEPALGUNJ, Sept 16: Women tricked into trafficking have been reluctant to move court as majority of the accused easily get away with impunity.
Of late, there has been a massive increase in the number of migrant women workers, who return home after undergoing immense hardship and torture, while many others have reportedly gone missing.
As per the Human Trafficking Act, the traffickers may face up to 20 years imprisonment. But the victims have become skeptical about the prospects of justice and stopped lodging complaints against the offenders.
Nanda Kala Bhushal of Rajhena-7 had lodged a complaint against fellow villagers Chandra Lal Sapkota and Purna Kala Sapkota who had sent her to Saudi Arabia two years ago but the duo have been released on date.
Bhushal was rescued by Nepali workers in Saudi Arabia after 10 months of sexual abuse by her employers. “They (the manpower agents) had said that I would be provided with a decent work while sending me via India but the situation was totally different there,” Bhushal said. “I was not given anything apart from a set of clothes despite complying with all their demands.”
An Interview with Ali Dayan Hasan of Human Rights Watch
by Raza Rumi of the Friday Times
Published in:
AUGUST 13, 2010
Following the August 2 murder of the MQM leader Raza Haider, ethnically opposed factions have killed 86 people in Karachi and the violence continues. Three ‘secular’ parties are in the driving seat – the PPP, MQM and ANP – but all with past records of mutual hostility. The Friday Times speaks to Ali Dayan Hasan of Human Rights Watch on the implications of recent events…
Where does responsibility for the current spate of targeted killings in Karachi lie?
The assassination of MQM provincial assembly member Raza Haider is condemnable and his killers should be apprehended. But the fact is that the subsequent and preceding killings in Karachi are equally unpardonable. Well over 80 people are dead and hundreds have been injured. While the MQM’s anger is to be expected, as a coalition partner in the Sindh government, it is incumbent upon the MQM to uphold the rule of law and not become party to its disruption. There are very many actors seeking to destabilize Karachi, such as radical Islamists and those seeking to damage the transition to democracy in general. The violence in Karachi is a collective political failure of the MQM, the PPP and the ANP and unless it is arrested, all three parties will suffer. In such a situation, only militants and extra-constitutional forces will be the beneficiaries.
KATHMANDU, AUG 30 –
I have been covering crime for the last three years, and the kind of issues that I write about I am afraid don’t count as good news. It is a monotonous routine, and the things I write about usually come from the human underbelly. Of course, a few of the things I have written about have had wide readership. For instance, the arrest of glamourous models on charges of human trafficking.
A lot of crime reporting includes the daily tallying up of what police sources tell us. But, occasionally it also involves shining the light on the police themselves. The media has a short attention span, and what that means for many of the burning social issues is that they get overlooked or ignored even after being visible. Such is the level of impunity within the police force that very rarely feathers get ruffled by media reports.
So it came as no surprise that Inspector Dol Raj Shahi, who was accused of helping an inmate escape from the Dillibazaar jail on August 14, was freed from judicial custody on the orders of the Kathmandu District Court. No surprise either, that the police officers accused of misdemeanor always get a clean chit from the judiciary. What is intriguing in the case of Shahi is that no reporter knew when he was taken into judicial custody. Things became public only when he released. The grapevine has it that he was released at the behest of a former police chief. That’s just the tip of the iceberg.
The abduction of businessman Sanjay Surekha is mired in a controversy of its own magnitude. Kidnappers let Surekha off the hook only after his kin paid more than US$ 200,000 ransom. Police later managed to arrest the culprits. But Additional Inspector General of Police Kalyan Kumar Timalsina, going beyond his jurisdiction, put pressure on the investigators to release the detained kidnappers on bail, promising that they would remain in contact with the police, which they never did. A probe panel formed by the Police Headquarters found AIG Timalsina guilty. The probe panel submitted the findings to Police HQ and Home Minister recommending action against AIG Timalsina, but the punishment never came about.