[hr-education] Promoting international humanitarian law in Nepal

Dear colleagues,

FOHRID Human Rights and Democratic Forum has been conducting various
programs to improve the human rights situation and the impact of conflict
in Nepal. Large number of people are affected by the Maoist insurgency and
its counter insurgency by the government security forces. The parties
involved in the internal armed conflict have repeatedly expressed their
commitment to international humanitarian law (IHL), also known as law of
armed conflict, but there is a big gap between their commitment and actual
activities. They have not been able to show honesty in implementing their
commitments. As a result, increasing impunity and cruelty is heralding a
threat to humanitarian values and dignity. Under such circumstances, our
actions have to be centralised to minimize impacts. Moreover, we have to
take effective steps for sustainable peace through protection and
promotion of human rights. Hence, it is imperative to draw the attention
of the conflicting parties and to create pressure for the implementation
of the international humanitarian law.

In order to promote respect of IHL, FOHRID has been organising
discussions, seminars and interactive programs with participation from the
stakeholders.  Similarly, the organisation is protesting incidents of
human rights violations, conducting human rights education programs, fact
finding of major incidents, keeping record of incidents of human rights
violations, legal and other assistance to the victims and whereabouts of
the disappeared people.

In May, FOHRID organised a one-day interaction program on implementation
of the Geneva Convention Common Article-3 [which obliges the parties to an
internal conflict to respect some basic principles of humanitarian
behaviour and is binding not only on governments but also on insurgents,
Mod.]. Objectives were to create public awareness for respect and
implementation of the IHL, Common Article 3; draw attention of the parties
in the conflict to the implementation of humanitarian law; determine
strategies for advocacy to implement IHL for the follow-up stage.
Participants included representatives of the Royal Nepal Army, armed
police, Nepal police, District Administration Office/Home Ministry,
journalists, human rights activists, and lawyers.

The program has been successful to impart knowledge to the participants on
the application and implementation of the IHL. To some extent, the program
has been able to attract attention of the conflicting parties in the
application and implementation of the IHL, although impact of the program
could not be seen immediately. The organisers have been able to arrange
participation from the high level government security officers including
from the Royal Nepal Army; participation from the high level government
security personnel in a program on IHL will, of course, assist in reducing
humanitarian loss. Hence, it is a positive gesture from the government
side.

During the program several strategies were recommended for the
continuation of the program, including:

- regular advocacy for resolution of the internal armed conflict through
cease fire, peaceful negotiation is necessary;
- the incidents of violation of IHL should be made the issue of public
debate and, as far as practicable, the conflicting parties should be
involved in such debates;
- conflicting parties must be pressurized through extensive campaigns to
apply and implement the IHL;
- regular monitoring of the nature of violation of the IHL Common
Article-3 is necessary for its documentation and wide dissemination to the
national and international level;
- regular pressure should be created upon the conflicting parties to
fulfill their national and international responsibility. The
implementation of their commitments should be monitored regularly.

Activities recommended for follow-up stage include: regular discussion and
interaction with the major stakeholders; fact finding, monitoring and
documentation of the incidents of violation of IHL; effective protest to
the incidents of violation of IHL through press conferences, press
releases, demonstrations, etc; training based on the Article-3 and
international human rights standards for law enforcement staff of the
security forces; information dissemination; lobbying; research of the
cases of taking of hostage and disappearance and legal aid to the victims
and their family.

The first phase program on implementation of the International
Humanitarian Law (Geneva Conventions) Common Article-3 has just been
completed. The report of this programme was prepared to evaluate the
achievements of the program run under the financial assistance of German
Development Service (DED) Nepal and technical assistance of International
Committee of Red Cross (ICRC). For further continuation of the program, we
are looking for financial assistance to implement our follow-up
activities.

We look forward to receive your valuable comment and suggestions in this
regard.

Sincerely yours

Raj Kumar Siwakoti
General Secretary
FOHRID (Human Rights & Democratic Forum)
GPO BOX: 19 186 Katmandu, Nepal
Tel/Fax: + 977 1 44 23 125
E-mail: fohrid@wlink.com.np




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