Himalayan News Service

Kathmandu, May 21:

Senior party leaders, constitution experts and journalists today said the existing team of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) should be given continuity for another five-year term in the absence of an authentic body to recommend new names for the panel. They said no one can appoint anyone as chairman and members of the commission without following the due process of law governing the human rights watchdog whose five-year-term expires on May 26. The law has it that a recommendation committee headed by the prime minister is formed with a Supreme Court justice and the opposition leader as members. The committee recommends only one name for the post of the chairman and five others for the post of members. Addressing a public hearing programme organised by 10 non-government organisations to recommend names for posts of the NHRC chairman and members, standing committee member of the CPN-UML KP Sharma Oli said his party was in favour of giving continuity to the existing body because of the unavailability of persons, who could recommend names.

“We cannot, in principle, agree on the reconstitution of the NHRC when there is no recommendation committee as defined by the law,” Oli said. He added that if the new commission is formed without following the law, it would give impunity to the government to cover up rights violations. Former Supreme Court justice Laxman Prasad Aryal said the process of appointing the chairman of the NHRC and its members should start only after the revival of the House of Representatives. Organisers claimed that the government is trying to amend the existing law to allow it to appoint people of its choice to the NHRC. Nepali Congress (Democratic) spokesperson Dr Minendra Rijal said: “The prime minister and the opposition leader are two persons who command absolute majority in the parliament and represent the country’s entire people,” he said, adding: “It is not the question of who should represent the NHRC, it is the question of whether or not the due process of law is followed.”

Senior journalist Kanak Mani Dixit, whose name was recommended by NGOs for the post of one of the members of the NHRC, declined the offer. He asked the audience not to cast votes in his and human rights activist Krishna Pahadi’s favour. Pahadi is currently under preventive detention. He said Pahadi had asked him to convey his message that he was not interested in the job.

Dixit said the discussion should have focused on ways to “bring the legal process on the right track”. “Bringing the process on track is more important than recommending names,” he said, adding that all should mount pressure on the government to give continuity to the existing body. He further stressed the need of preserving and protecting files that contain secret individual records of rights violations by the state and other parties in the NHRC office. He said that the loss or damage to those files would have a “devastating impact” on the society in the long run.