KATHMANDU: Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal today called on the UN Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights-Nepal to strengthen the National Human Rights Commission for human rights protection in the country.

Saying that the government has extended the OHCHR’s tenure by three months, Nepal wondered, “The period of three months is enough. Why would it need such a long tenure here?” The OHCHR had demanded an extension of its tenure by another three years.

Addressing the ninth anniversary of NHRC here today, the PM called the international human rights institutions to focus on the investigation of politically motivated heinous crimes and let the national rights bodies continue with other regular works. “Since the international rights bodies are here temporarily they should concentrate on making the national rights bodies effective,” he added.

Nepal said the new government wanted to see NHRC as a powerful rights body. He asked the NHRC to protect the rights of people by taking help of national and international human rights agencies.

Nepal added that there should be no any discrimination against any minority groups. “We should

always protect children’s rights,” he said. NHRC chief commissioner Kedar Nath Upadhyay expressed his dissatisfaction over the non-implementation of its decisions by the government.

“The government authorities have implemented only four per cent of our recommendations. But they have assured us that 57 per cent of our recommendations are in the process of implementation. We have got no response on the implementation of 39 per cent of our recommendations,” he added. Upadhyay also urged the government to draft a constitution that upholds human rights in the country.

Saying that the political parties can play a big role in curbing the state of impunity and maintaining rule of law, Upadhyay urged them to respect human rights. “The parties may have differences on ideology. But they should not have differences on the human rights issues,” he said.