Family members of people who have gone missing after being arrested by the security forces submitted one million signatures to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) Nepal on Tuesday to pressure the Nepal government to stop ‘extra-judicial killings and forced disappearances’.

Issuing a statement Wednesday, the group of family members of involuntarily disappeared people submitted the signatures collected from various parts of the country to OHCHR spokesman Kiran Dieyer at the OHCHR office in Kathmandu.

“The signatures submitted to the OHCHR-Nepal will help create pressure on the royal government during the OHCHR’s upcoming convention in Geneva,” the statement said.

Some 70 family members of the involuntarily disappeared persons were present on the occasion.

Addressing the family members of the disappeared persons, Dieyer said the OHCHR was committed to protect human rights in Nepal and that due attention would be paid to the concerns raised by the campaigning family members.

Rights activists Dr Sundar Mani Dixit and Padma Ratna Tuladhar said they expected a proactive role of the OHCHR in pressuring the government to reveal the condition of the involuntarily disappeared persons.

Although the government has periodically disclosed the condition of hundreds of persons said to be disappearing, human rights groups believe there are still dozens of persons whose condition has not been revealed.