The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) warned the government to respect national and international laws to which Nepal is a signatory and which guarantee people’s rights.

Issuing a press statement on Saturday, Secretary General of the commission, Nicholas Howen, said, “The attention of the international community is on Nepal. Those responsible for human rights violations should be aware that they are accountable to national and international laws for their actions.”

“The ICJ and others have repeatedly called for the lifting on blanket ban on public gatherings in Kathmandu and Lalitpur, stop using excessive force to suppress protesters and stop arbitrary detention by security forces,” he added.

The international jurists’ body expressed serious concern about the excessive use of force to suppress the lawyers, rights activists and political activists who have been fighting for the rights of the people and the rule of law.

Nicolas said the grounds for the current blanket ban on public gatherings are neither proportionate nor justifiable under Nepal’s international human rights obligations.

“It is not only these lawyers who have suffered the consequences of exercising their right to freedom of assembly and expression. In the past week over 2,000 people have been arbitrarily detained and hundreds injured as a result of excessive use of force by the security forces,” said Howen.

Meanwhile, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), a global organisation of journalists, forwarded a letter to UN secretary-general Kofi Annan on Friday, calling on him to condemn security personnel for arresting journalists without issuing any legal notice and physically assaulting them.

IFJ, which represents 5,00000 journalists worldwide, is seeking Annan’s support for the struggle for democracy in Nepal. “The IFJ is particularly concerned over the status of 14 journalists and media workers, who were detained in course of the recent pro-democracy movement and are still in custody. Many of them were arrested without issuance of any legal notice and were physically assaulted by the police prior to their arrest,” the letter said.

“The police and Royal Nepal Army personnel have systematically targeted journalists and media persons covering mass protests. They have brutally attacked and arrested them,” the letter stated.

Meanwhile the South Asian Press Commission (SAPC) expressed grave concern at the crackdown on journalists across Nepal in recent days.

Issuing a press statement the SAPC called upon the government to immediately release all the detained journalists, stop targeting media persons and cease all attempts to curtail press freedom. nepalnews.com pb Apr 15 06