Nepal: UN rights office welcomes progress in enforced disappearance case

The United Nations human rights office in Nepal today welcomed the Supreme Court’s decision to order police to name top officials regarding the 2003 enforced disappearances of five students, calling on the Government to bring those behind such acts to justice.

Earlier this week, the Court ordered the Nepal Police, in connection with the case involving the case in Dhanusha District, to register First Information Reports (FIRs) which name senior civil, police and military officials and also include details of a possible grave site.

Although this site was identified more than two years ago, the Police have not requested forensic assistance to carry out exhumations.

Although the Supreme Court has issued several key decisions pertaining to human rights investigations, including one in June 2007 calling on the Government to investigate and bring to justice those behind disappearances, most have not been implemented and no perpetrators have been persecuted.

“Recent decisions by the Supreme Court have highlighted the urgent need to address the lack of accountability and to end the culture of impunity in Nepal,” said Jyoti Sanghera, Deputy Representative of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Nepal.

The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Nepal (OHCHR-Nepal) “encourages the Government to act on its commitment to end impunity by taking immediate steps to implement this and other Supreme Court decisions, so as to ensure that the perpetrators of the Dhanusha disappearances, as well as other serious conflict-related human rights violations, are brought to justice.”