Serious indictment

The Amnesty International (AI) has once again come out with damning evidence of the gross abuse and human rights violation in Nepal. Impunity continues to reign supreme. In fact, the abuse, denial and human rights violation has been almost a regular phenomenon figuring in the annual report of the AI. The seven-year-old Maoist insurgency has propelled the escalation of the trend to a level never known before.

The AI report holds both the government agencies and the Maoists equally guilty of perpetrating the violation. Murder, persecution and torture are the common methods applied by both sides against the other. In addition, the Maoists continue to face the charge that they are recruiting child soldiers, notwithstanding the denial they have issued, while some security personnel have been found guilty of rape by the AI. In such a grave situation, it is only natural that the AI has tried to exert its moral authority on both sides of the conflict—the government and the Maoists—to pursue peace dialogue. For that, both sides have to uphold human rights and humanitarian standards as necessary conditions for confidence-building measures.

However, given the past experience of both sides ignoring the suggestions of international bodies to adhere to international conventions on human rights, it seems to have compelled the AI to seek a far greater UN and international role. It has called on the UN Secretary General to step up efforts to ensure human rights, support the development of an office of the Commission of the Human Rights with human rights monitors given the mandate to protect human rights, besides taking effective measures to strengthen the judiciary and the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC).

While the AI’s concern is understandable, more effective and sensitive agencies of the state alone would be the best guarantee for upholding human rights in the country. The AI’s concern and pills for remedial measures can only be secondary. The international bodies and pressure can at times play a crucial role, but will be meaningless in the absence of a committed as well as effective state. The NHRC, judiciary and the police, besides the security forces, have to be sensitive towards human rights commitment and rules as a first condition for the improvement in the situation. Secondly, the government has to be serious and bold enough to end the culture of impunity by awarding punishment to security personnel and other authorities found guilty of rape, and other forms of the violation of human rights. Thirdly, the Maoists have to show to the Nepalese as well as the international community that their politics is not an anti-thesis of everything that is human rights, and that they have to honour all conventions and norms in a situation of conflict. A situation of external intervention is not the ideal thing to happen for both sides of the conflict and the country as a whole.