Kathmandu, November 15, 2005

After a three-hour meeting with the Chief Justice and other judges of the Supreme Court, the Nepal Bar Association (NBA) today withdrew its protest programme announced recently opposing the SC order issued on Friday declining to issue a stay order on the controversial Media Ordinance case. The NBA dropped its protest programme after the SC and NBA, in a joint statement, said they were fully committed to the protection of the supremacy of the Constitution, the rule of law and fundamental rights of the people. SC Registrar Dr Ram Krishna Timalsena and NBA General Secretary Madhav Banskota issued the joint statement this evening. The NBA had said it would boycott court proceedings across the country tomorrow as the lawyers had opposed the judgment by organising a sit-in on SC premises on Sunday. During the meeting Chief Justice Dilip Kumar Paudel, Justices Kedar Prasad Giri, Min Bahadur Rayamajhi, Ram Nagina Singh, Anup Raj Sharma and Registrar Dr Timalsena participated. President Shambhu Thapa, vice-president Sher Bahadur KC, General Secretary Madhav Banskota and former law minister Subhash Nembang, senior advocate Radheshyam Adhikary and former NBA president Harihar Dahal represented the NBA during the meeting. Advocates Bijaya Kanta Mainali, Tikaram Bhattarai, Nagendra Kumar Rai, Bhim Dhakal and Sarita Sharma participated on behalf of NBA. This is the second time that the SC has made such a commitment in its judicial history, responding to NBA’a protests.

Human Rights Watch flays NGO code of conduct

The New York-based Human Rights Watch in a statement today came down heavily on the government for introducing a ‘repressive’ Code of Conduct for NGOs/INGOs in a bid to “restrict” their activities. It urged the government to immediately “repeal” the same. The code, according to the international watchdog, is an attempt to “curtail” the work of human rights organisations and national and international social organisations and limit their freedom of action. The watchdog is concerned that the code “will be used to curtail the work of human rights workers and organisations that have been documenting abuses in spite of sustained attacks against them” following the February 1 royal takeover. “The code is a dangerous tool in the hands of a government openly hostile to the idea of human rights,” the statement said, quoting its Asia director Brad Adams. It further said the government’s intention is to “use this legal veneer to muffle the voices of those who have the courage to stand up to it.”