INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
KATHMANDU, JANUARY 14Nepali authorities have failed to end impunity for the ongoing abuses by security forces, said
UN chief: Rule of law risks becoming `Rule of Lawlessness'
Human rights issues inadequately covered during elections
Deaths caused by excessive or unnecessary force while policing protests, as well as deaths in custody and
allegations of torture, are rarely if ever credibly investigated, nor are perpetrators brought to justice, it said.
According to the World Report 2023 published by the HRW based on the events reported in 2022, 20-year-old Dalit Sundar Harijan died in Rolpa
jail in western Nepal on May 18
As per the authorities, his death was due to suicide
Harijan had been convicted of theft of mobile phones while he was still a minor, but was sent to an adult jail
He had been due for release in 2020
However, he was transferred to Rolpa, where he was serving the sentence of another man, convicted of offences related to organised crime,
who had been released in his place.An initial government inquiry led by a committee of prison staff absolved all the officials
A subsequent home ministry investigation, part of which was obtained by the HRW, implicated prison officials in swapping the two men's
identities and indicated that there may be suspicious circumstances related to Harijan's death
"However, the report was not published, and no action was announced," it said.On June 6, an 18-year-old woman, Nabina Tharu, of Bardiya
district was killed when police used tear gas and live ammunition against villagers who had blocked a highway demanding that the government
to do the needful to protect them from wild animals from a nearby national park
The government responded by appointing an investigative committee comprising police and officials from the Department of National Parks and
Wildlife Conservation, but no action is known to have followed, the HRW said.The international rights body has also drawn attention to the
deteriorating condition of women's and girls' rights
According to HRW, a series of rape allegations led to protests and calls to address widespread sexual violence in Nepal
Official statistics show that the number of recorded rapes had risen in recent years
The victims disproportionately belong to marginalised social groups, including Dalits.In June, hundreds of protesters gathered outside the
prime minister's office and elsewhere around the country after a 24-year-old woman used social media to describe how she had been drugged,
raped, filmed, and then blackmailed eight years earlier.During that time, Nepal's rape law contained a statute of limitations that prevented
allegations more than one year old from being filed with the police
Parliament's decision to extend the statute of limitations to either two or three years, depending on the age of the victim, still denies
access to justice in countless cases.Victims of conflict-related sexual violence perpetrated during Nepal's 1996- 2006 armed conflict are
among those affected by the statute of limitations, which is not addressed by the new transitional justice bill
No perpetrator has been brought to justice
In May, the government announced that it would provide interim relief to the victims, but the programme has not yet been designed or
implemented.A version of this article appears in the print on January 15, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.
This article first appeared/also appeared in https://thehimalayantimes.com