Nepalis based in New York gathered outside the UN headquarters in New York on a rainy Friday afternoon to stage a protest against the royal regime in Nepal and expressed their solidarity with the on-going pro-democracy movement in the Himalayan kingdom.

Addressing the gathering, Assistant General Secretary of the United Nations, Kul Chandra Gautam, said, “I am not speaking here as a representative of the UN, but as a Nepali who believes that democracy should be restored in Nepal.”

Other speakers at the event included Sanjaya Parauli, president of the New York based organization Alliance for Democracy and Human Rights in Nepal, USA, and Anand Bista of Nepali Democratic Youth Council, USA and Murari Raj Sharma, former Permanent Representative to the United Nations.

On 6 April, Global Majority and Monterey Institute of International Association and Conflict Resolution organized a public forum to discuss the topic “The power of civil society: Promoting Dialogue, Averting violence” at Monterey, California. Advocate at the Supreme Court, Dinesh Tripathi, deliberated on the human rights situation in Nepal. “State terrorism and state lawlessness is the biggest issue in Nepal,” he said. “The royal regime has responded in a very cruel and ruthless manner to the peaceful and nonviolent movement launched by the seven party alliance and massively participated in by the civil society.” The forum has adopted advocate Tripathi as one of the international advisers of Global Majority.

Although there are some factions of the diaspora that believe in the King, the general trend seems to be pro-democracy and anti-monarchy, said a journalist based in New York. Many “friends of Nepal” also took part in the pro-democracy programs. nepalnews.com by Apr 17 06