An international annual observatory report for the protection of human rights defenders entitled “Steadfast in Protest” has placed Nepal in the rank of Sudan, Colombia, Iraq, the Palestinian Occupied Territories, Chechnya and Cote d’ Ivoire in terms of “creating permanent insecurity” for the human rights defenders.
The report prepared jointly by the World Organization against Torture (OMCT) and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and released at 18 countries including Nepal on Wednesday said, “Defending human rights during political or armed conflict is extremely dangerous. Defenders in Cote d’ Ivoire, Sudan, Nepal, Colombia, Iraq, the Palestinian Occupied Territories, and Chechnya have operated in a climate of permanent insecurity, and several of them have been assassinated.”
The 2005 annual report of the Observatory for the Protection of human rights defenders is being submitted to Louise Arbour, the High Commissioner at the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in Geneva.
The report also describes the cases of 1,172 defenders and obstacles to freedom of association in about 90 countries.
“In Nepal, the situation of human rights defenders seriously worsened in 2005, following the Royal proclamation on February 1. The government widely repressed peaceful demonstrations and gatherings, and also placed restrictions on the freedom of movement of numerous defenders,” the report adds.
Apart from the activists, the report has included journalists, lawyers, doctors, union leaders and intellectuals who denounce attacks on the dignity of human beings as human rights defenders.
The report in Nepal’s case is largely based on reporting of “arbitrary arrests” of human rights activists and scribes after February 1. The report also included the atrocities of Maoists against rights defenders.
The report also included is the case of a scribe of Radio Nepal, Dekendra Raj Thapa, who was killed by the Maoists.