Human rights body, Amnesty International has asked security forces in Nepal to refrain from using excessive force against those who protesting against the new Constitution. David Griffiths, Research Director for South Asia also said that there were number of major human rights shortcomings in the new Constitution.
Nepal’s new Constitution describes the country as a secular republic divided into seven federal provinces. But the ethnic minority groups are of the view that the Constitution does not afford them sufficient representation. Hindu activists are also protesting saying that the constitution should have restored Nepal as a Hindu nation.
Force and the use of live ammunition by security forces to contain often violent protests have already claimed more than 40 lives in Nepal since August, most of them protesters, Amnesty said in a release.
Amnesty added that in many of the protest-related deaths, the force used by security forces was excessive, disproportionate or unnecessary, contrary to international legal standards as shown by investigations carried out by Nepal’s National Human Rights Commission and civil society, including Amnesty International.
Yesterday’s clashes took place in the southern cities of Biratnagar, Birgunj and Malangawa where tensions have been high for weeks because of controversial federal boundaries drawn up in the new constitution, which split up the homelands of ethnic groups from Nepal’s southern plains.
http://www.merinews.com/ Updated On: September, 2015