The PMO had issued a circular to all secretaries to report without delay on the status of implementation of the recommendations made by NHRC.[break]
According to government records, a total of 463 recommendations made by NHRC have been gathering dust at the PMO for the past 14 years.
The PMO last week decided to make a serious review of the implementation status of NHRC´s recommendations and sought the implementation status of the recommendations.
According to details furnished by the secretaries, state agencies implemented the recommendations in the cases of the late Gauri Sapkota, late Khusilal Yadav, Tara Prasad Bhusal, Sub-Inspector Ganesh Prasad Dahal and Constable Shyam Narayan Yadav, among others.
The progress reports show that state agencies also implemented the recommendations in the cases of Ram Pari Devi, Prakash Ray, Sagyandevi Ray, Devmaya Adhikari, Maranidevi Shah, Jagannath Mahara, his wife Pabitridevi Mahar, the late Malesiya Devi, Manuturiyadevi Shah, Sudamadevi Rawat, Narmaya Thapa Magar and Parodevi Uraph.
Likewise, NHRC´s recommendations in the cases of Munadevi Damai, Lalmaya BK, Rabindra Silwal, Yak Bahadur Dhakal, Dhana Bahadur Tamang, Nagendra Parajuli, Tomanath Paudel, Top Bahadur Karki and Bhoj Bahadur Karki were also fully implemented by government agencies over the 14-year period.
Similarly, recommendations related to Rama Adhikary, Suresh Baral, Shivahari Achhami, Aagra Gogane, Lal Bahadur Tamang, Bir Bahadur Tamang, Sharan Tamang, Devi Sundas and Ganesh Thapa have been implemented.
"Implementing only 35 recommendations out of nearly 500 cases is quite unsatisfactory," said a source at the PMO, adding, "This will help further erode Nepal´s human rights status at the national and international level."
Except for those killed, all the aforesaid were either abducted and harassed or tortured by security officials during the armed conflict period. NHRC had long ago recommended action against security officials allegedly involved in the extra-judicial killings of the above-mentioned deceased and compensation for the families of the deceased.
The Ministry of Home Affairs has compensated families at the rate of Rs 30,000 to 100,000.
Most of the unimplemented recommendations concern the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Ministry of Defense.
The PMO´s move to collect reports from the secretaries comes at a time when Nepal is preparing its "Universal Periodic Report on Human Rights" for presentation at a UN meeting in Geneva starting January 25.
According to figures, 340 individuals who figure in the recommendations have been fingered for abduction, extra-judicial killings and disappearing of people.
Similarly, NHRC has recommended that the government take action against 160 individuals for violation of human rights in various other cases.
However, NHRC´s major recommendations have largely gone unheeded for long.
NHRC´s recommendations to the government to take necessary action against those named in connection with disappearings and torture at Bhairavnath and Yuddha Bhairav Battalions, the extra-judicial killings in the Doramba incident, and the murder of journalists Birendra Sah, Dekendra Thapa and Uma Singh, among others, have gone unheeded.
NHRC has recommended prosecution of security officers for their involvement in the Kotwada incident in 2001, in which 37 laborers engaged in airport construction were killed in a group at Kotwada, Kalikot district. NHRC found that senior army officials were involved in the incident.
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