“Nepal suffers from a chronic problem of non-implementation of human rights protections. Laws get passed but go unenforced. Transitional justice processes and institutions continue to be subordinated to short-term political interests. Government after government, including the current one, fail to respect judicial decisions and even actively seek to compromise judicial independence,” Frederick Rawski, Asia-Pacific Regional Director at the International Commission of Jurists told this paper in September.
Last month, Nepal had renewed its pledge to address human rights concerns and progress in transitional justice during a teleconference organised by Amnesty International and the International Society for Human Rights (ISHR).
Nepal’s Permanent Representative to the UN in New York Amrit Bahadur Rai had said: “I would like to assure all that there will be no blanket amnesty in cases of severe human rights violations committed during the conflict period,” he said.
Nepal had been elected for the first term in 2017 to the 47-member Commission, which has 13 members from the Asia-Pacific. At that time, Nepal had secured 166 votes, which has now come down to 150. In Tuesday’s election Pakistan secured the most votes (169), Uzbekistan got 164 to become a UNHRC member for the first time, and China 139. Saudi Arabia won only 90 votes.
Fifteen countries were elected, with Russia from Eastern Europe, France and Uk from Western Europe, and Cuba from Latin America and the Caribbean region.
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