8 Oct 2012

NEPAL / HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT

The United Nations Human Rights office, in a report, has documented serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law that occurred during the ten year conflict in Nepal from 1996-2006, and expresses concern over the country's failure to create promised transitional justice mechanisms. OHCHR

Posted at: October 8, 2012 6:08 pm

Duration: 02:22

Available in: SD

DOWNLOAD

Full script

STORY: NEPAL / HUMAN RIGHTS
TRT: 2.22
SOURCE: OHCHR
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS

DATELINE: 8 OCTOBER 2012, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND / FILE

SHOTLIST:

FILE – 2004, NEPAL

1. Pan left, buildings
2. Med shot, people climbing a stair case
3. Med shot, people

8 OCTOBER 2012, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND

4. SOUNDBITE (English) Rory Mungoven, Head of the Asia Pacific Section, UN Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights (OHCHR):
"What we have done is bring together all of the primary material, the research, the documentation that truth commission will need to succeed, to delve into the past and to make recommendations for justice and redress for victims."

FILE – 2004, NEPAL

5. Med shot, OHCHR cars driving through a swampy road

8 OCTOBER 2012, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND

6. SOUNDBITE (English) Rory Mungoven, Head of the Asia Pacific Section, UN Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights (OHCHR):
"In this archive and report we catalogue about 9,000 different cases of serious human rights violations many of them are unlawful killings committed by the security forces and the Maoists in the course of the military operations, their skirmishes, their search, security operations. Some 2,000 cases of unlawful killings, disappearances which happened in intensive periods of the conflict in different districts of the country, some 1,300 cases according to ICRC, some are recorded in our database and also aspects of some the conflict that have been largely concealed and hidden, sexual violence, more than 100 cases of rape of women, of girls, girls of under 15, girls as young as 10."

FILE – 2004, NEPAL

7. Various shots, people in a village

8 OCTOBER 2012, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND

9. SOUNDBITE (English) Rory Mungoven, Head of the Asia Pacific Section, UN Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights (OHCHR):
"Amnesty may have a place for building in Nepal, there may be some violations committed in the conflict that need to be forgiven but for the most serious crimes, the war crimes, the killings, the disappearances, the rape of women, these are crimes that cannot be amnestied in international law, that cannot be readily forgiven, the should be investigated and prosecuted before a proper judicial process."

10. Various shots, people working

STORYLINE:

The United Nations Human Rights office, in a report released today (8 October) has documented and analysed serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law that occurred during the ten year conflict in Nepal, from 1996 to 2006.

The 233 paged report titled: Nepal Conflict Report, is intended as a tool for the Government of Nepal and civil society institutions.

In an interview, the head of the Asia Pacific Section at the UN Human Rights office, Rory Mungoven, said the report should help the Nepalese authorities embark on a transitional justice process by setting up a truth and reconciliation commission.

SOUNDBITE (English) Rory Mungoven, Head of the Asia Pacific Section, UN Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights (OHCHR):
"What we have done is bring together all of the primary material, the research, the documentation that truth commission will need to succeed, to delve into the past and to make recommendations for justice and redress for victims."

The report is accompanied by a database of 30,000 documents and some 5,000 cases that the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights collected during its operations in the country.

SOUNDBITE (English) Rory Mungoven, Head of the Asia Pacific Section, UN Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights (OHCHR):
"In this archive and report we catalogue about 9,000 different cases of serious human rights violations many of them are unlawful killings committed by the security forces and the Maoists in the course of the military operations, their skirmishes, their search, security operations. Some 2,000 cases of unlawful killings, disappearances which happened in intensive periods of the conflict in different districts of the country, some 1,300 cases according to ICRC, some are recorded in our database and also aspects of some the conflict that have been largely concealed and hidden, sexual violence, more than 100 cases of rape of women, of girls, girls of under 15, girls as young as 10."

The office has expressed concern over the lack of political will to investigate and prosecute serious violations of international law that occurred during the conflict. Six years after the end of the conflict, no individual has been held accountable for such violations. The establishment of a transitional justice commission was committed to by the parties to the conflict in the Comprehensive Peace Accord. However, it has not yet been established.

Mungoven said the government had begun talking about creating this body, but with the power to give "broad amnesties for very serious crimes".

SOUNDBITE (English) Rory Mungoven, Head of the Asia Pacific Section, UN Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights (OHCHR):
"Amnesty may have a place for building in Nepal, there may be some violations committed in the conflict that need to be forgiven but for the most serious crimes, the war crimes, the killings, the disappearances, the rape of women, these are crimes that cannot be amnestied in international law, that cannot be readily forgiven, the should be investigated and prosecuted before a proper judicial process."

The report covers 10 years of conflict in Nepal, from 1996 until the peace agreement in November 2006.