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- Acknowledge at the highest level responsibility for
large-scale disappearances, and take all steps necessary to bring an end
to the widespread practice of disappearances, extrajudicial and summary
executions, and unlawful arrest and detention. Ensure that military,
police, and other security forces comply in full with the requirements of
international human rights and humanitarian law.
- Repeal or revise laws that undermine constitutionally
guaranteed protections against human rights violations, such as the Public
Security Act, the Public Offense and Punishment Act, the Anti-State Crimes
and Penalties Act, and TADO.
- Take measures to prevent enforced disappearances,
including:
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Cease the practice of secret detention and of holding detainees
in military barracks and other unofficial places of detention. Ensure that all
persons detained by security forces are held at recognized places of detention,
and that arresting officers identify themselves and present official
identification.
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All places of detention must maintain records regarding every
detainee, including the date, time, and location of arrest, the name of the
detainee, the reason for detention, and the name of the forces effecting the
detention. The records must be available to detainees' families, counsel, and
other legitimately interested persons. All transfers of detainees should be
reflected in the records.
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Detainees should be informed immediately of the reasons for
arrest and any charges against them. The family should be informed promptly of
the arrest and location of the detainee. Any persons detained by the security
forces must be allowed contact with family and unhindered access to legal
counsel.
-
Uphold the detainees constitutional right to be brought before a
judicial authority within twenty-four hours of arrest (or within a reasonable
time if arrested in a remote location).
- Take all necessary steps to establish accountability for
those who order and carry out disappearances, as well as other abuses of
human rights and humanitarian law.
-
Introduce legislation making disappearance a criminal offense
that is punishable by sanctions commensurate with the gravity of the crime.
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Discipline or prosecute as appropriate all those implicated for
participation in abuses in accordance with international due process standards.
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Hold superior officers, whether civilian or military, criminally
accountable if they knew, or should have known, that forces under their command
had committed or were about to commit criminal acts, and nothing was done to
prevent such commission.
- Investigate all cases of enforced disappearance, including
those documented in this report. Ensure that each disappearance is
investigated until the fate of the victim is clearly and publicly
established. Ensure that the Committee for the Investigation of Alleged
Disappearances of Persons by the State has relevant authority to conduct
prompt, independent, and impartial investigations into disappearances.
Toward this end:
-
Authorize the Committee to obtain information from any state
agencies, including the military, about the whereabouts and status of the
disappeared.
-
Provide the Committee with investigative powers to search
unannounced and unaccompanied security force facilities and records related to
the disappearance.
-
Empower the Committee to compel the attendance of those
implicated in carrying out or ordering the disappearances, and to compel the
disclosure and production of documents.
-
Instruct the Committee to keep the families of the disappeared
informed of the progress of its investigations.
- Ensure and promote the Supreme Courts ability to use its
constitutionally vested powers to enforce fundamental rights. The court
must promptly examine and pursue each valid habeas corpus petition and
designate a proper officer of the court to enforce habeas corpus.
Non-compliance with the Courts orders should be subject to sanctions.
- Order the Home Ministry and the Defense Ministry to
promptly respond to inquiries and comply with all habeas corpus orders
issued by the courts.
- Provide redress for the families of those who have
disappeared in the form of monetary compensation as well as counseling and
social assistance programs.
- Strengthen the structural and operational independence of
the National Human Rights Commission. Instruct all governmental agencies,
including the Home Ministry and the Defense Ministry, to cooperate with
the NHRCs investigations into allegations of violations of human rights
and humanitarian law by the security forces, including enforced
disappearances. Provide adequate funding and staffing for the NHRC,
ensuring that the NHRC receives unfettered access to the technical
assistance of the United Nations, in accordance with the Memorandum of
Understanding between the government and the Office of the United Nations
High Commissioner for Human Rights.
- Consistent with His Majesty's Government's Commitment on
the Implementation of Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law,
outline an implementation plan, with firm deadlines and measurable
benchmarks, to improve the governments compliance with international
human rights and humanitarian law obligations.
The United Nations:
- The United Nations Commission on Human Rights should adopt
a resolution condemning ongoing abuses by both sides in the conflict in Nepal and specifically calling on the Nepali government to end the practice of enforced
disappearances by security forces.
- The United Nations Working Group on Enforced and
Involuntary Disappearances should continue its probe into disappearances
in Nepal, urging the government to promptly investigate individual cases
transmitted by the WGEID and to implement the WGEIDs recommendations
aimed at ending the practice altogether.
- The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human
Rights should hold the Nepali government to its commitments under the
Memorandum of Understanding concerning technical assistance, ensuring that
the NHRC has unhindered assistance and can fully perform its statutory
functions.
The United States, India, the United Kingdom, and other states providing
military assistance to Nepal:
- The United States government should ensure that, in
accordance with recently adopted legislation, military assistance is
provided to Nepal only if the Nepali government complies with the
conditions in the law. In monitoring compliance with the law, U.S. officials should pay special attention to units quartered in army barracks known to be
locations where many disappeared persons are reportedly held in
unofficial detention, including the ones listed in this report.
- States that have not done so should make military
assistance to Nepal contingent on the governments adherence to
international human rights and humanitarian law and exclude any assistance
to units implicated in human rights violations. All suppliers should
actively monitor the use of any weapons or non-lethal items to ensure they
are not being utilized to commit abuses.
- States providing military assistance to Nepal should pressure the government to abide by its commitments under international law. They
should publicly condemn specific violations, including the widespread
enforced disappearances committed by security forces, and urge the
government to address them.
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