UN RIGHTS EXPERTS DEEPLY CONCERNED OVER REPORTS OF SECRET DETENTION IN NEPAL

12 November 2003



The United Nations Commission on Human Rights’s Special Rapporteur on torture, Theo van Boven, the Special Rapporteur on the right to freedom of opinion and expression, Ambeyi Ligabo, and the Chairperson-Rapporteur of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, Leïla Zerroügui, express their profound concern over reports that dozens of individuals are being detained secretly in Nepal and are therefore at risk of suffering torture and other forms of ill-treatment.

In the last two months, 31 urgent appeals have been sent, most of them jointly, by the experts to the Government of Nepal regarding the alleged detention in unknown locations of 56 people.

According to the information received, since the cease-fire between the Government and the Communist Party of Nepal (CPN) (Maoist) collapsed on 27 August 2003, both sides in the conflict have committed human rights abuses. The Special Rapporteurs and the Chairperson-Rapporteur have received information about individuals, including some journalists, arrested by security personnel on suspicion of supporting or being involved with the CPN (Maoist). Those arrested are subsequently kept for prolonged periods at unknown places of detention, where they are potentially at risk of being subjected to torture or other forms of ill-treatment. Some former detainees complain of having been beaten while in custody.

The Commission’s experts refer to international human rights norms that strictly prohibit the use of torture and other forms of ill-treatment under any circumstances. In its resolution 2003/32, the Commission “reminds all States that prolonged incommunicado detention may facilitate the perpetration of torture and can in itself constitute a form of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, and urges all States to respect the safeguards concerning the liberty, security and the dignity of the person”.

The experts also recall Article 3 common to the four 1949 Geneva Conventions, which is binding on all parties to a conflict not of an international character and enshrines the protection of life and the physical integrity of the human person, including the prohibition of cruel treatment and torture at any time in any place. Further, article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights provide that, “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media regardless of frontiers”.

The experts call on the parties concerned to comply strictly with these international human rights and humanitarian norms.