The entrenched impunity for past crimes committed allows for ongoing human rights violations in the country. The stakeholder submission details Nepal’s systemic practice of torture in detention and the lack of implementation of recommendations by the Committee against Torture. Nepal has neither passed legislation that criminalizes torture, nor has it put a system in place that allows for meaningful redress or adequate compensation for torture victims.
“Endemic torture in Asia portrays how medieval and underdeveloped are justice institutions in Asia. That there are only three countries in Asia that has criminalised the practice proves that even today prevention of torture is not state policy…”
Torture victims Babul Akhtar and Junayed Hossain Leon shared their painful experiences of sustaining torture by law-enforcement agencies while in detention. Wife and daughter of Mr. Mahmudur Rahman Manna, a civil society activist, who remains arbitrarily detained, and has been tortured in custody, shared their dreadful experiences regarding the excruciating law-enforcement system in Bangladesh.
Contrary to the assurance to the UN and against the domestic law in Bangladesh, negating due process, the Government of Bangladesh has thus far withdrawn 6855 cases of murder, rape, robbery, corruption, extortion and the keeping of illegal arms. The excuse cited while executing the ‘crown prerogative’ by the government is that all these cases are ‘politically motivated.’
The manner how these justice institutions operates, notably in the process of complaint making and protection, have largely denied or prevented any sort of remedies for the victims. The lack, if not absence of protection and of security to complainants and witnesses seeking remedies, are clear examples of the government’s pledge making its protection mechanism for human rights being hollow.
This has resulted in a monitoring gap, at a time when Nepal’s political and constitutional future looks bleak. Limited implementation of its recommendations and concerns about the newly adopted NHRC Act curtail the NHRC’s independence and mandate and cast serious doubt over its capacity in this regard.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE PRESS RELEASE ALRC-PRL-002-2012 A Joint Press Release by ACAT France and the Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) SRI LANKA/FRANCE: Torture in Sri Lanka — when arbitrariness prevails (Hong Kong, June 26, 2012) Paris — Hong Kong, 26 June 2012. On June 26th, the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, ACAT-France, in collaboration with the Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC), releases “When arbitrariness prevails” a new report providing an overview of the phenomenon of torture in Sri Lanka. The findings are devastating: three years after the end of the conflict between governmental forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) the use of torture and […]
Under the UPR, the human rights situation in each UN member-state is considered under a state-led peer-review system every four years. Pakistan’s record will be reviewed by the UN Working Group on the UPR on October 30th, 2012, on the basis of a report submitted by the government, one prepared by the UN, and another comprising the input of civil society organisations.
