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TADO likely to increase incidences of torture: Report

An alternative report on Convention Against Torture- 2004 being released ...(More)

The Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Control and Punishment) Ordinance (TADO) is likely to increase incidences of torture in the country, a report prepared by a group of human rights organisations said Sunday.

An alternative report to the combined periodic state report of Nepal-- that will be submitted to the UN Committee Against Torture later this month-- has said most of the provisions in TADO were likely to be used in employing torture as a means of investigation. The report said Public Security Act and Police Act also had similar provisions that could be misused (by security officials).

Addressing a function organised to make public the alternative report,  former Law Minister and leader of the CPN (UML) -- a major partner in the  ruling coalition, Subash Nemwang, said nobody could accept TADO as it was. "The Ordinance should be revised immediately and provisions in it that are against the norms of human rights be scrapped." He also called upon the government and Maoist rebels to sign on the Human Rights Accord prepared by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC).

Advocate Rabindra Bhattarai-- who was involved in preparing the alternative  report-- said there was a need to make activities of the government-formed Human Rights Promotion Centre and Human Rights Cells of the Royal Nepalese Army and Nepal Police open and transparent

Chairman of the Human Rights Treaty Monitoring Coordination Committee (HRTMCC), that prepared the report, Subodh Pyakurel, said there was a need to domesticate international treaties and convention signed by Nepal into country's laws. He said structural violence was still prevalent in Nepal and that `dalit' and women were its victims.

President of Centre for Victims of Torture (CVICT), Nepal, Dr. Bhogendra Sharma, said there was a need to end the culture of violence and promote the culture of respect. Saying that the on-going insurgency had resulted into surge in cases of torture across the country, he called upon both the government and rebels not to use torture as a means of punishing their opponents.

Coordinator of the People's Alliance for Peace, a civil society coalition,  Prof. Dr. Mathura Prasad Shrestha said the culture of torture was a concept and attitude against human culture. He also alleged that a `grand design' was being hatched to cow down the human rights defenders. "Rights activists in Nepal are not going to vacate the field. We will continue our campaign whatever be the cost," he declared.

The alternative report, that covers the period 1992-2004, has called upon the government to revise the definition of torture so as to make it  compatible to the definition of UN Convention Against Torture (CAT) and declare torture as a criminal offense.

The report as also recommended to amend provisions in the Torture Compensation Act, 1996 and sign and accede to the optional protocol to the Convention Against Torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

According to CVICT-- that monitors and provides treatment and rehabilitation services to torture victims in the country, the insurgency in Nepal is producing an estimated 100,000 torture victims every year. nepalnews.com by Dec 19 04

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- TADO a major step backward: Human Rights Watch

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