Human Rights and Democratic Forum (FOHRID)

Transcription

1 Brief ICC Campaign Report of FOHRID HUMAN dfgj clwsf/ tyf k hftflgqs d~r RIGHTS AND DEMOCRATIC FORUM 196/14, Radhe Marga, Dillibazar, Kathmandu Postal Address: P.O. Box 19186, Kathmandu, Nepal Tel: , Fax: fohrid@wlink.com.np Website: Human Rights and Democratic Forum (FOHRID) 1

2 Impunity and Rule of Law Overall objective of this theme is combating impunity for promotion of accountability, and strengthening the notion of rule of law. FOHRID has identified various issues that need to be intervened with priority under impunity and rule of law theme. Enabling non-state actors to combat impunity so as to strengthen rule of law and organize, enable and forward concerted efforts of rightsholders seeking accountability is necessary to combat impunity and promote accountability in Nepal. We cannot significantly improve human rights situation till we prevent torture and impunity, and work for criminalizing disappearance and torture as well as replace existing Torture Compensation Act We need to formulate and enforce new Bill Relating to Prohibition of Torture in line with the Convention Against Torture (CAT) and build public campaign for accession and domestication of Optional Protocol of CAT. The Supreme Court has made landmark decisions on the cases relating to impunity and victim's justice. But these decisions have not been implemented effectively till now. Therefore, it is necessary to carry out campaign for implementation of impunity related verdicts of the Supreme Court. At the same time, it is necessary to file cases (FIR/PIL) on behalf of victims of serious crimes under international law including torture to ensure their access to justice. Dealing with past violence and prosecute perpetrators / emblematic cases of human rights violation, work to formulate a new legislation against impunity, and amendment of existing laws that encourage impunity, alongwith reform in criminal justice and penal system is necessary to end impunity and promote accountability. Ending impunity and promotion of rule of law is not possible till we carry out sensitization on international human rights instruments including Convention Against Torture (CAT), Convention Against Enforced Disappearance, Rome Statute of International Criminal Court (ICC), and reform and formulate new legislation accordingly; build public campaign for accession into Rome Statute and it's domestication in Nepal; combat child recruitment in armed groups and impunity; and address equal representation of women in the Judiciary. Coordination and loose network to combat impunity FOHRID has initiated coordination and loose network formation against impunity since the year This loose network has been forwarded under the banner of Citizen's Task Force to Combat Impunity. More than 52 organizations 1 are involved in this network. Brief report of the activities accomplished by the Task Force from mid 2008 is discussed in the following paragraphs. Year long Campaign against Impunity The Citizen's Task Force to Combat Impunity unveiled "Year long Campaign against Impunity" on 1 June Calendar of the "Year long Campaign against Impunity", on behalf of human rights organizations and civil society, was made public on the occasion. Those activities were implemented from June 2008 to May A demonstration was held in Kathmandu on the issue of Campaign for implementation of the Supreme Court decisions on disappearance. The activities conducted under the year long campaign included Campaign against enforced disappearance, Campaign relating to ICC ratification, Campaign relating to implementation of Rayamajhi Commission's Report, Torture/campaign for ratification of Opt- CAT, study on custodial torture, public assembly and passage of Bill Relating to Torture 2065, Campaign relating to disarmament, VAW and effective implementation of CPA, respect HR to end impunity, Implementation of recommendation of National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Campaign relating to promotion of rule of law, and implementation of court and democratic reform. 1 2 Organizations affiliated to the Citizen Task Force to Combat against Impunity - 1. Human Rights and Democratic Forum (FOHRID); 2. Informal Sector Service Centre (INSEC); 3. National Coalition for ICC; 4. Forum for Human Rights Protection; 5. Centre for Victims of Torture (CVICT); 6. Child Labour Concern Centre (CWIN); 7. Joint Forum for Human Rights; 8. AJAR Nepal; 9. National Human Rights Foundation (HURFON); 10. Women Foundation; 11. Advocacy Forum; 12. Women Rehabilitation Centre (WOREC); 13. Shakti Samuha; 14. Youth Action Nepal; 15. Blue Diamond Society (BDS); 16. COCAP; 17. Today's Youth; 18. ICPD; 19. Campaign for Human Development and Peace (HUDEP); 20. IHRICON; 21. Legal Aid and Counselling Centre (LACC); 22. LANCAW-Nepal; 23. Disabled Human Rights Centre (DHRC); 24. Elders Nepal; 25. Conflict Study Centre; 26. Environment and Justice Society (ENJUS); 27. Campaign for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law; 28. Rural Self-reliance Service Centre; 29. National Land Rights Concern Group; 30. Civil Society for Peace and Development; 31. Centre for Legal Study; 32. AI Nepal; 33. Kanooni Rajya Prabardhan Samaj; 34. Development Forum; and 35. Rural Self-reliance Development Centre (RSDC). Organizations expressing solidarity to the Citizen Task Force to Combat against Impunity 1. Human Rights Home (HRH); 2. Pro-Public; 3. Nepal Chepang Association; 4. Social Development Forum; 5. National Dalit Federation Nepal; 6. GAESO; 7. International Law Forum Nepal; 8. Ex-Army Council; 10. Drinking Water and Sanitation User's Federation; 11. Law Associates; 12. Swatantra Jeevan Kendra; 13. Nepalese Society of Victimology (NESOV); 14. National Human Rights Concern Center (NHRCC); 15. Forum for Women, Law and Development (FWLD); 16. Civil Peace Committee; and 17. K & K College

3 Several events of the protest and signature campaign for accession to ICC and combating impunity were held in this year. Activities of ICC campaign were implemented in July 2008 under the calendar of "Year-long campaign against Impunity" chalked out by Citizen's Task Force to Combat Impunity. Aim of these activities was to create awareness in the people and exert pressure to the government in favour of accession to the Rome Statute of ICC. The activities held in the banner of Citizen's Task Force to Combat Impunity are coordinated by different human rights organizations including FOHRID and Amnesty International-Nepal. Interaction between Civil Society and Members of CA/Legislature Parliament An interaction between members of civil society and CA Members with the aim to incorporate provisions complying with the international standards in the Enforced Disappearance of Persons (Offence and Punishment) Ordinance, 2065 proposed by Nepal government was held in Kathmandu on 13 February The program organized with the financial and technical support from the OHCHR Nepal facilitated the CA Members to explore the lapse and gaps in the Bill and measures to address them. Based on the findings of the interaction, feedback was recommended to the CA Members regarding the weaknesses of the Disappearance Ordinance and measures to be taken to resolve them. The ordinance is yet to be promulgated as the government is indifferent towards it. The government has fully ignored concerns of the civil society regarding this ordinance. It is certain that the ordinance in the present form cannot address expectations of the victims and provide justice to them. Advocacy Under advocacy, the events of several rounds of interaction, public meeting and demonstration were organized. Impact of this action was seen in strengthening struggle against torture and impunity, motivating people to unitedly combat against impunity and realization of the need of a specific law against impunity. The advocacy contributed for public opinion formation against impunity and torture. Compared to the previous situation, the citizens have been more sensitized on the issue of torture and impunity. The general public have started to demand end of impunity. The public pressure has been leaving nationwide impact to end impunity. Expansion of the campaign will certainly result in more accountable government. 2 Following table presents a list of stakeholders who were directly involved and benefited from the activities: Table : Involvement of target groups in the advocacy related activities 3 # Activities Total participants M F Total 1 Public hearing / Mass demonstration Interaction / round table discussion Total Several round lobbying vis-à-vis legislative organ was held as another component of advocacy. The events of lobbying were held on the issues of ratification and accession of the Rome Statute and OPT-CAT, ending impunity and strengthening peace process. Some glimpses of the lobbying events held in this fiscal year are presented in the table below: Table : Issue and Agencies of lobbying # Issue and Agencies 1 Two separate delegations of human rights community met with Bam Dev Gautam, Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister and Dev Gurung, Minister for Law, Justice and Constituent Assembly Affairs to request them to pass the civil society draft Bill Relating to Torture, 2065 and ratification of Rome Statute of ICC and OPT-CAT. Likewise, Bill Relating to Torture 2065 was disseminated to the Members of Constituent Assembly along with request letter to pass it from the Legislature-Parliament. 2 A memorandum was submitted to the government requesting amendment of the incomplete provisions of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). This was held to make the campaign against impunity effective. 3 Lobbying with CA Members for collaboration to ensure "Impunity Free New Nepal". Request letters were submitted to each of the existing 596 CA Members. An interaction with the media on the status of the campaign for ratification of the Rome Statute of ICC was held. 4 Lobbying vis a vis discussion was conducted with the office bearers of NHRC to end impunity and Action Plan was submitted to take necessary measures and build pressure for ratification of Rome Statute of ICC FOHRID (February 2009), Final Evaluation Report of Initiative to Combat against Torture and Impunity, P. 35. FOHRID February 2009, Event Report of Advocacy Component under the project Initiative to combat against torture and impunity.

4 and OPT-CAT. Agenda against impunity was handed over to the NHRC under lobbying. A list of issues to be incorporated to combat impunity was suggested to the NHRC. 4 5 Submission of request letters to the 8 ruling political parties to ratify the Rome Statute: Separate request letters were submitted to Nepali Congress (Ram Chandra Paudel, Vice-President of Nepali Congress and Minister for Peace and Reconstruction), Nepali Congress-Democratic (Vice-President Gopal Man Shrestha and General Secretary Bimalendra Nidhi) CPN-UML (General Secretary Madhab Kumar Nepal), C.P. Mainali, Chairman of Bam Morcha, leaders of Nepal Sadbhawana Party (Anandidevi) and Nepal Majdoor Kisan Party to draw their attention to ratify the ICC and OPT-CAT. Lobbying was also conducted with the Members of the Legislature-Parliament. 6 Request letters submitted to Prime Minister and Foreign Minister and civic lobbying was conducted on the issue of ratification of the Rome Statute of ICC. (Information disseminated through sticker, street drama, interaction, pamphlet, banner, placard, radio program, article, write up etc.) 7 Request letter submitted to the Speaker of Legislature-parliament Subhas Chandra Nembang requesting ratification of the Rome Statute of ICC. ICC Accession Campaign Regarding ICC accession campaign, FOHRID conducted various activities including public hearing, interaction, translation, documentation, publication and dissemination of resource materials. Alongwith ICC accession campaign, an important resource material entitled "International instruments developed against impunity" was translated and published in Nepali language. This campaign was successful to exert pressure to the key stakeholders including government and political parties for accession into the Rome Statute. On the other hand, this activity encouraged and enabled non-state actors to demand accession into Rome Statute in an organized way. However, the government has not acceded into the Rome Statute till now. CA Member Sapana Pradhan Malla, unveiled second edition of the "International instruments developed against impunity", a compilation of 20 international instruments including Rome Statute of ICC, of ICC. FOHRID disseminated the publication in bulk to the Office of the Attorney General (450 copies), judiciary (200 copies), Security Agencies including Nepal Army (80 copies), Nepal Police (60 copies) and Armed Police Force (60 copies), National Human Rights Commission (20 copies), Nepal Bar Association (15 copies) and ESP Nepal (200 copies) for use by the judges, attorneys, the security officials and other stakeholders. The remaining copies were disseminated to the Ministries, human rights community, civil society, UN agencies, European Union, development agencies, diplomatic missions, donor communities, INGOs etc. First edition of this publication was brought out with the financial assistance from the EIDHR, EU and the second edition was published with the funding from the Enabling State Programme (ESP) Nepal. FOHRID held several events of interactions on the regulatory framework of Rome Statute with the representatives of the concerned ministries of the Government of Nepal, law enforcing agencies and non governmental sector. Likewise, interactions were held at different levels to sensitize on the issue of Nepal's accession into the OPT-CAT and its regulatory framework. These events sensitized stakeholders on the issues such as need of signature, ratification and implementation of Rome Statute and OPT-CAT and need of a law to check torture and impunity, Prosecution against human rights perpetrators - ending torture and eradicating impunity and jurisdiction of ICC, implementation of Rome Statute, CAT and its OPT-Protocol, need of law reform to check impunity etc. FOHRID has been coordinating and facilitating interaction, public 4 4 The issues suggested to the NHRC were development of political system and will power to end impunity, repeal of domestic laws contributing to impunity, formulation of new law against impunity and legal provision, ensuring fast and empowered judicial administration, stop devaluation of rule of law and judiciary, revelation of truth and guarantee of justice to the victims, prosecution against those convicted of human rights violation, ending torture and inhuman activities occurring with impunity, creating environment to take responsibility in the serious violation of human rights caused by non state actors, ratification and accession to the international instruments against impunity (Rome Statute of the ICC, OPT- CAT, Disappearance Convention, Convention on the non-applicability of Statutory Limitations to War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity, other conventions regarding corruption and other issues), extension of Citizen's Task Force to Combat Impunity and expansion of action against impunity.

5 hearing, demonstration and peaceful sit in programs organized by human rights community demanding accession into the Rome Statute of ICC. Such activities are being implemented under the banner of Citizen's Task Force to Combat Impunity, a loose coalition formed on behalf of human rights community coordinated by FOHRID to combat impunity through accession into the Rome Statute. The government has not acceded to the Rome Statute even a long time after the then reinstated parliament passed resolution to accede to it on 25 July Therefore, a stronger and more effective campaign is required in Nepal for accession into the Rome Statute. There is no alternate of accession into the Rome Statute to end impunity in Nepal. For further information regarding above programmes and information, please contact: Mr. Raj Kumar Siwakoti Secretary General Mailing Address: GPO Box: 19186, Kathmandu, Nepal Street Address: 196/14, Radhe Marga, Dillibazar, Kathmandu Tel: Fax: fohrid@wlink.com.np Website: or 5