NPL 001 / 0409 / OBS 062
Physical assault / Denial of justice /
Repression of a demonstration / Ill-treatments
Nepal
April 16, 2009
The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint programme of the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), requests your urgent intervention in the following situation in Nepal.
The Observatory has been informed by reliable sources about the attack of a woman human rights defender and the repression by the police of a peaceful sit-in in the Chimdi village, Sunsari district (eastern region of Nepal), resulting in 14 women human rights defenders being severely beaten and injured.
According to the information received, on April 9, 2009, Ms. Kara Devi Sardar, a woman human rights defender, was beaten by the relatives of a girl, Ms. Lalita Gurung, after she had called for the respect of the fundamental right of any person to marry and to choose freely her/his mate. Ms. Gurung had planned to have an inter caste wedding with a boy belonging to the dalit community, which was vehemently rejected by her relatives. It was also reported that the two young people were beaten up by Ms. Gurung’s relatives for talking to each other in public. Immediately after the assault, Ms. Kara Devi Sardar then approached the Illaka police station of Chimdi to file a complaint, but Sub Inspector Rajesh Chaudhari refused to file the complaint.
Furthermore, on April 11, 2009, the Women Human Rights Defender Network Sunsari and more than 500 women from eight Village Development Committees (VDC)[1] staged a demonstration in front of the police station in Chimdi VDC, in order to call for sanctions against the police for refusing to register Ms. Kara Devi Sardar’s complaint and to denounce the denial of access to justice, evoking at the same time the statement made by the Prime Minister on January 25, 2009, in which he committed to establish a complaint centre for women to register cases in order to end all forms of violence against women and criminalise caste-based discrimination against dalits. They also asked for apologies as, the day before, those women had already walked towards the police station in Chimdi VDC, and police officers had publicly insulted them.
The women human rights defenders were then assaulted and charged with batons and rear end of guns by around 10 police officers and four other unknown people. The police beat the women on the head, the chest, the thighs and the legs and some even tried to force the stick into the vagina of some women. At least 14 women were injured, including Ms. Thakani Mehta, Ms. Sita Kamat, Ms. Bina Chaudhari, Ms. Sunita Sah and Ms. Laxmi Chaudhary, who were seriously injured and were brought to the Koshi Zonal hospital for medial treatment.
It was also reported that the journalists Rajan Niraula, Krishna Bhattrai and Gopal Kolirala as well as Mr. Sukudev Chaudhari, representative for the Informal Sector Service Centre (INSEC), who had gone to investigate the incident to the police station were also manhandled and their vehicle vandalised by the police. Likewise, Mr. Binod Chaudhary, a member of the Women’s Rehabilitation Centre (WOREC) in the Sunsari district, an organisation helping victims of domestic and sexual violence, was also threatened.
The Observatory expresses its deep concern about the above-mentioned events, which clearly demonstrate the rampant culture of impunity in Nepal and the failure of the State to protect and promote the right of freedom of expression. Furthermore, those events illustrate that women human rights activists continue to face barriers to access justice and seek redress for acts of violence, including sexual violence and gender discrimination, and that they remain at risk of attack because they dare to challenge the patriarchal and caste-based system.
Please write to the Nepalese authorities and ask them to:
Please also write to the diplomatic representations of Nepal in your respective countries.
Geneva - Paris, April 16, 2009
Kindly inform the Observatory of any action undertaken quoting the code number of this appeal in your reply.
The Observatory, a FIDH and OMCT venture, is dedicated to the protection of human rights defenders and aims to offer them concrete support in their time of need.
The Observatory was the winner of the 1998 Human Rights Prize of the French Republic.
To contact the Observatory, call the emergency line:
Tel and fax: FIDH : +33 (0) 1 43 55 20 11 / 33 (0) 1 43 55 18 80
Tel and fax: OMCT : + 41 (0) 22 809 49 39 / + 41 (0) 22 809 49 29
Email : Appeals@fidh-omct.org
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