Kathmandu, December 8:

Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala today expressed concern over the slow progress of the UN in Nepal’s peace process. Koirala aired his concern in a meeting with a delegation of donors, including the representatives of the UNDP.

The donors, however, said the UN had been “extremely quick” and the peace process was “smooth”. The delegation led by the Humanitarian and Resident Coordinator of UNDP, Matthew Kahane, had called on Koirala to voice donors’ concern over the government not appointing chairpersons and members of National Human Rights Commission, Women Commission and Dalit Commission for a long time now.

“The meeting focused on NHRC. We are interested in ensuring that the procedures of selection of the members and executives of the NHRC be completely independent and non-political,” Kahane told The Himalayan Times. He said they also discussed ways to make the appointment procedures in the Women Commission and Dalit Commission independent.

“We conveyed to the Prime Minister that the NHRC, without its officials, has become dysfunctional and the OHCHR is doing its job,” a diplomat who was present in the meeting said.

Koirala was urged to appoint only “neutral and capable people with clean image” in the NHRC. “We encourage the government of Nepal to work towards making an independent NHRC, which can be regarded as a guardian of the Nepali people,” Kari Karanko, the Charge de Affairs at the Finnish embassy who represented the delegation as the current presidency of the EU, said.

“Political parties want to have their people in the NHRC, which is not right. We believe that it should have officials who are impartial,” another European diplomat said. The donors also urged Koirala to settle the issue of an interim constitution, an interim government and an interim parliament soon.

“Jokingly, we also talked about whether the prime minister was going to give the interim constitution, interim government and the interim parliament as a Christmas or New Year gift,” the diplomat said.

Representative of the Office of the High Commissnor for Human Rights (OHCHR) in Nepal, Lena Sundh, ambassador of Denmark to Nepal, Finn Thilsted and the Deputy Chief of Mission at the British Embassy in Kathmandu, Paul K Bute, were also present in the meeting.

Koirala is learnt to have assured the diplomats that some development would take place in that direction by Tuesday.