Nepal’s foreign minister visits Canada, international delegation of lawyers call for strengthened transitional justice
Photo: Dr. Arzu Rana Deuba, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Nepal, meets with Melanie Joly, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Canada, in Ottawa in September 2024.
The Kathmandu, Nepal-based Himalayan Times reports: “Minister for Foreign Affairs Dr Arzu Rana Deuba and her Canadian counterpart, Melanie Joly had a bilateral meeting in Ottawa, Canada on Wednesday [September 18].”
That article adds: “Minister Rana urged Canada to establish its embassy in Nepal [it is currently in New Delhi]”, “she urged Canada to invest in Nepal’s water resources sector and take maximum benefit based on its experience and expertise in the water resources sector”, “she also invited the Canadian Foreign Minister to visit Nepal”, and that “bilateral talks will be held in Kathmandu in coming December.”
It also notes: “[Minister Rana informed Minister Joly] that Nepal’s parliament has recently endorsed the laws related to the transitional justice, which will facilitate in concluding the remaining works of the peace process.”
Concerns about transitional justice
Rana Deuba is a member of the Nepali Congress Party.
Deutsche Welle further explains: “In July this year, the three major parties — the Nepali Congress, Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist), and Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre) — formed a mechanism to find common ground on the contentious provisions in the [transitional justice] bill. They reached a written agreement on the bill earlier this month, and on August 14, Nepal’s lower house of parliament approved the long-delayed amendments to the transitional justice act.”
But Agence France-Presse reports (via NDTV): “A team of international rights lawyers, in a report released [October 24] and based on a research mission to Nepal, warned the changes could do the opposite and exclude ‘swathes of victims’ from justice. The lawyers added that the new law ‘permits amnesties which would prevent criminal accountability for gross violations of human rights’. The lawyers said that until addressed, the ‘doors to the regular justice system should not be closed’.”
That article adds: “The group [of lawyers] was supported by rights organisation Peace Brigades International (PBI).”
International lawyers’ delegation and report
The Independent Delegation of International Lawyers undertook a fact-finding mission to Nepal that occurred from March 12-18, 2024.
They then produced a report titled: Peace without Justice and Accountability? A caution against impunity in post-conflict Nepal (October 2024).
Setting the context, the report notes:
- “Between 1996 and 2006 the then Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist faction) (“CPN-M”) waged a ‘people’s war’ against then-monarchical Nepali government forces. In the decade of fighting, tens of thousands of people suffered serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law, including unlawful killing, enforced disappearance, torture, rape and other forms of sexual violence, the use of child soldiers, arbitrary arrest and forced displacement. Both government security forces and Maoist guerrillas were responsible for the abuses. Victims included non-combatant civilians, as well as Maoist combatants and members of state forces.”
The United Nations Human Rights Office has suggested that as many as 9,000 serious human rights or international humanitarian law violations may have been committed during the decade-long conflict.
PBI-UK public forum
On October 24, Peace Brigades International-United Kingdom held a public forum in London titled ‘Peace and Accountability in Nepal: A historic opportunity for transitional justice’ to help release this report.
Their featured Nepali speakers were Nadira Sharma and Gita Rasaili.
Gita Rasaili is the Vice-Chairperson for Kathmandu at the Women Conflict Victims National Network (CVWN).
Rasaili has stated: “The Maoist war had started in 1996 when I still a child. One of my elder brothers [joined the Maoists in 2001]. In 2002, we got news that said he was transferred and killed in a combat. That same year, after about six months, another one of my elder brothers joined the Maoists.”
She adds: “Eventually I too joined the Maoists when I was fourteen years old [in part because] I was born in a Dalit family and wanted to end the brutal caste system…”
Rasaili also describes the day the Royal Nepalese Army tortured and killed her sister Reena: “They dragged my sister down outside the house, locked the doors and tortured her. They could hear her crying, pleading, them asking her questions about the Maoists, and her answer to them saying she is studying and teaching and she doesn’t have information about them. …At around five in the morning my family heard gunshots. When they ran outside after the army left, my sister was lying against the tree and was dead. She was naked, her chest had been scratched and the blood was flowing through her vagina. She had been raped and killed brutally. The gun was shot through her back.”
Photo: PBI-UK tweet.
Mandira Sharma is the co-founder of Advocacy Forum Nepal and is a Senior Legal Advisor at the International Commission of Jurists.
Human Rights Watch has noted: “One man’s story in particular moved Sharma to embark on her campaign to transform Nepal into a safe place to raise children, go to work and live in peace. In the 1990s, Sharma, then a young law student, got to know Samal, a law professor who had disappeared for some time.”
Sharma says: “He was a teacher, a pro-democracy person, and thus a target. Samal was arrested by [Royal Nepali] military, put in an ice box, given electric shocks. He was beaten on the soles of his feet, hung upside down. They broke him. This man’s story was the first time I realized how torture breaks the people. That why I do my work.”
The Defenders has also noted: “On 3 January 2013, UK authorities arrested Colonel Kumar Lama of the Nepal Army and charged him with two counts of [torturing two alleged Maoist rebels] under Universal Jurisdiction law. Due to their work relating to the case, Mandira and her colleagues were called traitors in the media in Nepal.”
Photo: PBI-UK tweet.
The West in Nepal
Canadian author Yves Engler has written: “During its late 1990s war with anti-monarchist guerrillas, the Royal Nepalese Army (RNA) was trained in counterinsurgency techniques by Canada’s special operations Joint Task Force 2. In Canada’s Secret Commandos, [Ottawa Citizen journalist] David Pugliese writes that, ‘the RNA wanted Canadian military advisers to oversee its counterterrorism plans and suggest how best to fight the Communist guerrillas.’ Eventually, Nepal’s Maoist forces succeeded in disbanding Nepal’s two-hundred-year-old monarchy and won the most seats in the country’s first Constituent Assembly as the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist).”
In August 2014, Agence France-Presse/The Guardian also reported: “British authorities have been accused of funding a four-year intelligence operation in Nepal that led to Maoist rebels being arrested, tortured and killed during the country’s civil war. Thomas Bell, the author of a new book on the conflict, says MI6 funded safe houses and provided training in surveillance and counter-insurgency tactics to Nepal’s army and spy agency, the National Investigation Department (NID) under ‘Operation Mustang’, launched in 2002.”
Peace Brigades International in Nepal
Peace Brigades International (PBI) has had a significant and long presence in Nepal, a country located in South Asia between India and China.
Photo: PBI-Nepal.
The PBI website notes: “In early 2006, the Nepal Project was launched and PBI Nepal had a team of 5 volunteers based in Kathmandu providing protective accompaniment for local human rights organizations.”
That was a turbulent time in the country.
Human Rights Watch has explained: “The country nearly slipped into total chaos when King Gyanendra engineered a 2005 coup against the country’s weak civilian government. Security forces flowed into the cities, arresting opposition leaders and human rights defenders and student activists, sending many into exile.
The decade-long war between the Nepalese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and The Royal Nepal Army (RNA) formally ended with the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Accord on November 21, 2006.
More than 17,000 people were killed during this civil war.
Photo: PBI-Nepal accompaniment of lawyer from Advocacy Forum, 2011.
Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli is the current Prime Minister of Nepal (since July 15, 2024). He has been the chairman of the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist–Leninist) since 2014. The previous prime minister, now the Leader of the Opposition, is Pushpa Kamal Dahal of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre).
Photo: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau meets Nepali Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli at the United Nations in New York.
The PBI website now notes: “As part of our ongoing commitment to raising awareness about and supporting the work of Nepali human rights defenders we are cooperating with COCAP [the Collective Campaign for Peace, a coalition of 43 non-governmental organizations], which will enable us to work in partnership with them to design an international advocacy strategy to complement the work of human rights defenders on the ground.”
Canada and hydropower in Nepal
Among the issues of interest in Canada-Nepal relations is hydropower.
Global Affairs Canada has noted: “In recent years, Canada has organized visits to Nepal aimed at encouraging Canadian companies to interact with the Nepalese business community to promote Canadian capabilities and cooperate in areas of mutual interest, such as in hydropower, infrastructure, and clean technology.”
Cameron MacKay, the Canadian Ambassador to Nepal, has further highlighted: “In February 2022, Canada and Nepal held a virtual series on dams and hydro industry. The Canadian Embassy led a delegation of 15 Canadian companies and showcased the expertise of Canadian hydro consultants, equipment manufacturers and instrumentation capabilities for Nepal hydro industry. In April 2022, six Canadian companies participated in the Himalayan Hydro Expo in Kathmandu. In March 2021, the Embassy of Canada conducted a virtual Canada-Nepal Dam and Hydro Session that saw the participation of nine Canadian companies. In January 2019, the first Nepal-Canada Sustainable Hydro Workshop was organized in Kathmandu. Several Canadian companies have been active in the Asian Development Bank and hydro projects funded by the World Bank in Nepal. These include Hatch, Stantec, SNC Lavalin and Manitoba Hydro International.”
We continue to follow this.
Photo: PBI volunteers accompany members of the Dalit Feminist Uplift Organisation (DAFUO), Nepal, 2010.
Photo: PBI monitoring a march on International day for the disappeared, Nepal, 2010.
Photo: PBI-Nepal with Devi Sunuwar (2010). In February 2004 her life changed dramatically when her 18 year old niece was shot on suspicion of being a Maoist guerrilla. Devi witnessed this crime, contacted the media and named the officers she believed were responsible. Less than a week later soldiers came to Devi’s house looking for her. In her absence, they arrested her 14 year old daughter, Maina, then tortured her to death.
Photo: PBI-Nepal, 2005-06
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