Kathmandu, April 6

Member of National Human Rights Commission Mohna Ansari defended her statement at UPR session in Geneva recently.

Ansari told THT that it was natural for NHRC, a human rights body with the mandate to protect and promote human rights, to raise issues of rights in national and international forum.

She said the constitution guaranteed right to life to all citizens and as 55 people, including security personnel, were killed during Terai protest, it was natural for the NHRC to demand probe into the killings.

“It is our (NHRC’s) own findings that excessive force was used during the Tarai protests,” she added. She said human rights were natural rights that could not be limited by law but the new constitution said that laws would be enacted within three years to ensure some rights.

“Can we say that since there is no law now, senior citizens will have to wait for three years to avail senior citizen allowance?” she wondered.

Ansari said the government had made pledged that it would protect citizens’ economic, social and cultural rights and hence she raised those issues in Geneva.

Ansari said the principle of human rights mandated the state to treat all human beings equally irrespective of their gender, but the new constitution does not give women the same status as their male counterparts as far as the right to transmit nationality was concerned.

Ansari said there was no reason for anybody to be unhappy with what the NHRC stated at UPR session.