Kathmandu, March 20:

Chief of the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) Nepal Ian Martin today said OHCHR will work jointly with the Dalit NGOs in Nepal in preparing a more comprehensive report on Dalit issues.

Addressing a workshop on “Conflict and Dalit Rights” here today, Martin said the report to be submitted this September will focus on three categories, including violation of International Humanitarian Laws, which is also called “Laws of war”, violation of democratic rights and long-standing discriminations against ethnic and low-caste people. “Dalit’s issues fall in all three categories,” he said.

The programme was organised by the Jana Utthan Pratisthan (JUP) and OHCHR in Nepal on the occasion of the 41st International Day for Elimination of Racial Discrimination. The long-standing and profound issues of racial discrimination must be addressed by government and non-government bodies, communities and even within the families, Martin further said.

Martin called on the government to “restore” the rights of detained political leaders and human rights activists. He visited ten political detainees, including CPN-UML leader Madhav Kumar Nepal, on Saturday.

Presenting a paper on “Conflict Transformation and Dalit Rights” Yam Bahadur Kisan of the JUP said the forces driving the Dalits to join the conflict in the case of Nepal were identity-based discrimination, destitution, retaliation against human rights violations and a hope of change among others.