Kathmandu, Nepal (AHN) – Hong Kong based Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), has issued a report this week on the occasion of Human Rights Day 2010, highlighting the defects that are evident in the area of the judiciary as extraordinary delays often affect the possibility of fair trail.
“The Constituent Assembly of Nepal is not able to move any step forward despite the passing of two years and seven months since it first resolved to draft a new constitution for the country. The deadline fixed for the Constituent Assembly expired on 28 May 2010,” it said.
“Deepening bickering and appalling irresponsibility among the political parties in the country is solely responsible for this impasse. The people of Nepal have become increasingly desperate and can find no solution to this shameful and stagnated political deadlock,” the report cliams, painting a dismal and gloomy picture of country.
“The people’s faith in finding a solution to most of their legitimate grievances arising out of past and continuing human rights violations has rapidly eroded along with their dream of having a functioning democratic republic for which they have sacrificed lives and freedoms in the past,” if further reads.
Despite repeated promises, human rights violations committed before 2008 are yet to be investigated and the perpetrators prosecuted.
Reports made by government commissions are yet to be made public and it is feared that none of these reports will result in any credible actions in the near future.
“On the contrary, despite the country resolving to become a federal democratic republic, human rights violations committed by the state security agencies, the police and other politically affiliated units continue even today.”
The country neither has an adequate number of formal and functioning justice institutions nor are there any serious discussions to constitute them. Even today, the day-to-day functioning of the police, prosecution and the judiciary and other essential service-providing institutions do not exist in Nepal beyond Kathmandu.
“The civil war and long periods of neglect has resulted in pushing an alarmingly high number of the population to the verge of extinction. Kathmandu today has reduced to a capital city that portrays the appalling living conditions in Nepal. The city hardly has the infrastructure to function, including basic facilities like water and electricity to meet the requirement of the city’s population,” the report bluntly reads.
The AHRC expects that in the coming year, the government will take adequate steps to ensure that the unacceptable status quo is changed. However, this not only requires the resolve of the ordinary people of Nepal, but also of its neighbours and above all that of the international community that still entertains concern for the people of Nepal.
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