KATHMANDU, JUNE 26
The National Human Rights Commission has said that the government has largely failed in its efforts to compensate the victims of heinous crimes and ensure lawful punishment to the perpetrators as recommended by the watchdog.
The constitutional body of the government issuing a press release today on the occasion of International Day for the Assistance of Torture Victims urged the government to take action against the perpetrators inhumane crimes and ensure justice to the victims.
The commission sought clarification from the government on various complaints related to extra-judicial killings and torture received from various districts across the country. It said that it received complaints from districts such as Jumla, Chitwan and Rautahat.
NHRC also claimed that it had been regularly monitoring the situations of prisons across the country to check if the jailbirds were receiving inhumane treatment by authorities and if their fundamental rights are violated. After the monitoring, the rights body said it found that many prisons in the country were overcrowded resulting in deprivation of various fundamental rights of the jail birds. Poor management of drinking water, lack of proper sanitation facilities and minimum living spaces were the common problems in most of the prisoners across the country.
It also said that thousands of people had filed complaints of torture and inhumane treatment during the 10-year long insurgency period in the country. The commission had also tried to make the government accountable for the crimes and compensate the war victims in the last one decade but, the various governments formed in this period did a precious little to this end.
Nepal's constitution and the Criminal Code have guaranteed the right to be free from torture. Nepal has also ratified the 1984 United Nations Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment. It has also expressed commitment at the international forums to end all forms of torture in the country.
The watch dog urged government to bring all perpetrators of the heinous crimes to the book as per the law of the land.
A version of this article appears in the print on June 27 2021, of The Himalayan Times.
