KATHMANDU, MAY 29
Lawmakers have demanded that there be no statute of limitation for serious offences, including rape.
At an interaction organised by the Forum for Women, Law and Development and Women and Social Committee of the House of Representatives here today, lawmakers Bina Kumari Shrestha and Laxmi Pariyar said there should be no time limitation for filing case on rape.
Lawmaker Binda Pandey urged lawmakers to think about extending the statute of limitation as girls and women cannot immediately report crimes of rape due to various reasons. Laxmi Pariyar, however, said it was debatable whether there should be no statute of limitation for rape cases committed against minor girls or in all rape cases.
Lawmaker Narayan Khatiwada put forth a different perspective, saying that while debating statute of limitation in rape case, lawmakers should also keep in mind the social structure and tendency of people to frame their political opponents in serious offences. "In some instances, women and parents tend to frame people even in consensual sexual relations to exact revenge," he shared.
Executive Director of FWLD Advocate Sabin Shrestha presented a paper, saying Nepal Police data showed that 40 per cent of FIRs lodged with the police were related to sexual violence.
He said it was alarming that in 80 per cent of sexual violence cases, the perpetrators were relatives or acquaintances of the victims.
He said Nepal had accepted other countries' suggestion in the UPR working group to remove the statute of limitation. The Human Rights Committee found that Nepal violated the human rights of a 16-year-old girl who was tortured, raped and shot dead by army officers during the people's war. With regard to the statute of limitation, the committee noted that it was in violation of Nepal's obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
The committee observed, "In 2018, the State party (Nepal) extended the statute of limitations for filing complaints of rape and other sexual offences to one year. The committee considers that even this new statute of limitation is not commensurate with the gravity of such crime."
Shrestha said there was no statute of limitation in rape cases in India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, the UK and Denmark. Shrestha said the latest concept in the judiciary was that time should not be an obstruction in ensuring justice to the victims of serious crimes.
Shrestha said the constitution of Nepal had ensured that the victims of sexual violence had the right to get justice and if the one year statute of limitation was strictly followed, then many victims would not be able to enjoy their constitutional rights against sexual violence.
A version of this article appears in the print on May 30, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.
