The interaction among civil society organization’s representatives, human rights defenders, and stakeholders of Bagmati Province has been conducted on the draft of the Nepal Government’s report of Universal Periodic Review (Third Cycle) on September 5, 2020, via a virtual medium.
Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Minister and the Secretariat of the Non-Government Organization Coalition for UPR, Informal Sector Service Centre (INSEC), have conducted partnership to facilitate this interaction which included almost 74 participants from diverse categories of CSOs, HRDs and stakeholders.
The Government of Nepal will be submitting a UPR report to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights every four years. Nepal’s report is being reviewed in January 2021.
Koshal Chandra Subedi, Joint-Secretary to the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers, informed that out of the 195 recommendations made by the UN Human Rights Council in the reports submitted by the Government of Nepal in 2015, the Government of Nepal has accepted 152 recommendation and 43 recommendations were noted.
The draft of the report was presented by Shraddha Rijal, Under-Secretary to the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers.
Yagya Prasad Adhikari, Director of the National Human Rights Commission and Chief of the Bagmati Provincial Office, suggested including the problems that were encountered in the implementation of previous commitments and what all went well while working in it.
Speaking at the interaction program, INSEC’s Chairperson Dr Indira Shrestha said that the role of civil society is important in human rights protection and promotion. She also stressed that the civil society is the backbone for the development of the country and it should play a leading role in the field of human rights.
Likewise, INSEC’s Executive Director Bijay Raj Gautam said that there were proper provision for the Non-governmental organizations, National Human Rights Institutions, and the state to submit reports for UPR.
Sanjay Sharma, activist in the field of gender and sexual minorities, urged to include the issue of education of minority children in the report.
Commenting on the draft report, Sunita Danuwar, Chairperson of the Sunita Foundation, urged to pay attention to human trafficking as well. She raised the issue of human trafficking as a separate point in the draft and stressed on the need to make necessary arrangements to stop the overall trafficking.
Activist Nirmala Dhital said it was ironic those children with disabilities were still deprived of access to education and that the 73 types of medicines provided free of cost by the government did not include medicines for patients with spinal injuries.
Dalit rights activist Kamal Kumar Bishwakarma said that the report still stating that the marriage of elderly people should be stopped due to ethnicity and discrimination on the basis of caste. More than 74 people participated in the interaction.
Dalit Rights Activist Kamal Kumar Bishwakarma said that the marriage of adults is still halted because of ethnicity and caste-based discrimination.