NATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION WORKING

C O N F I D E N T I A L KATHMANDU 000896

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR SCA/INS, DRL

E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/05/2016
TAGS: PHUM PGOV PTER NP
SUBJECT: NATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION WORKING

REF: A. KATHMANDU 752


B. KATHMANDU 863

C. KATHMANDU 690

Classified By: Ambassador James F. Moriarty. Reasons 1.4 (b/d).

NHRC Going Door to Door on Disappeared
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1. (C) In a March 31 meeting, National Human Rights
Commission (NHRC) Chairman Khatri and two other Commissioners
thanked the Ambassador for USG support of the Commission, and
detailed the NHRC's activities, especially its work to
resolve old disappearance cases. While Nepalis had not
reported any new disappearance claims to NHRC so far in 2006,
there were many outstanding disappearance cases from previous
years. The NHRC was conducting a door-to-door campaign
gathering information on old cases to update case files.
Khatri noted that it was difficult to know the true scope of
disappearances, as many people had fled to India or joined
the Maoists and were not in government custody. The NHRC was
now fully operational nationwide, having recently opened its
fourth and final regional office in Dhangadhi (far-western
terai),joining regional offices in Pokhara (west),
Biratnagar (east) and Birgunj (central). To better cover the
whole country, the NHRC also had smaller contact offices,
consisting of one officer and two support staff, in Jumla
(far-west hills),Rolpa (west-hills),Janakpur (east-terai),
Butwal (west-terai) and Khotang (east-hills). The NHRC had a
new internally displaced persons (IDP) desk to focus on the
issue and was pleased that the government had recently issued
an IDP policy (ref A).

NHRC "Cordial" Relationship With Government
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2. (C) Khatri noted that the NHRC had a "cordial
relationship" with the government and had unimpeded access to
detention facilities. However, he was skeptical about
security forces punishing their own human rights violators,
saying that security forces had a "tendency to cover up,"
which was "very bad." He explained that it was difficult to
verify claims by the police that they had punished 109 human
rights violators (ref B) due to the security force's lack of
transparency. He "very much doubted" that information.
Stressing that the NHRC was an independent body, he noted the
NHRC had not been consulted in advance and was surprised when
the government listed it as one place that Maoists could
surrender under the government's March 13 "Surrender and
Rehabilitation Policy" (ref C). As NHRC was not equipped to
handle arms, it had publicly refuted the government's citing
it as a place of surrender. Khatri stated that to date no
Maoist had shown up wanting to surrender at any NHRC office.
He acknowledged that there was an underreporting of Maoist
human rights abuses. He noted, however, that the NHRC had no
capability to recommend that the Maoists take any action,
explaining that the best the Commission could do was to
recommend that the government try to address the concerns of
victims of the Maoists, such as paying compensation.

Funding Concerns
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3. (C) Khatri expressed concern that international donors
were not assuring the NHRC of continued support, and thus it
was difficult for the NHRC to plan for the future. He
worried that the European Commission (EC) project that funded
62 Nepali staff expired in June, and the expected follow-on
grant would not begin until January 2007, a period in which
the NHRC had no way to pay the 62 staff. (Note: EC Officer
Bryan Fornari explained to Emboff that the funding gap was
the result of a bureaucratic issue, and did not represent a
political decision to stop supporting the NHRC. End note.)
The Ambassador assured Khatri that the U.S. had no intention
of cutting funding to the NHRC.

Comment
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4. (C) The NHRC appears active and engaged in promoting and
protecting human rights. The commission appears to be acting
independently of the government.
MORIARTY