KATHMANDU, June 6: After protracted negotiations with the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in Geneva, the government has decided to let the operation of the OHCHR´s Nepal office for one more year but with a "drastically" narrowed mandate and closure of its field offices.
A meeting of the cabinet on Sunday took a decision on OHCHR-Nepal´s mandate extension in line with "an agreement in principle" with the OHCHR in Geneva, said sources in the cabinet and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA). This is the fifth term extension of OHCHR-N since its establishment in 2005.
"Four regional offices will be closed down as soon as possible," a cabinet member told myrepublica.com on condition of anonymity.
The source did not want to be named in the news, saying the matter is still secret until Nepal and OHCHR-Nepal sign an agreement on mandate renewal.
According to the sources, the movement of the UN rights body will be restricted. "OHCHR-N will be able to visit a place it wants only after getting prior permission from MoFA," said a source.
OHCHR-N had been enjoying an unrestricted movement and access to any place for human rights monitoring and investigation under the mandate with which it came to Nepal in 2005 when human rights situations was grave.
Sources said the movement of OHCHR-N will be restricted and it will be able to visit a place it wants only after getting prior permission from Foreign Ministry.
Defending the decision on mandate reduction, a MoFA source said, "The context when OHCHR came to Nepal has changed now. Moreover, we have the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) with constitutional status to monitor rights situation now while the rights watchdog was only a statutory one in 2005."
OHCHR, European and US ambassadors in Kathmandu had lobbied for continuation of the previous mandate and asked the government not to curtail movement of the OHCHR-N. Besides, they had sought the mandate extension for two years.
Under the renewed mandate, the UN rights body is required to strengthen the national human rights institutions and carry out human rights monitoring and promotion in coordination with the NHRC.
"OHCHR is pleased to be in a position to help protection and promotion of human rights for another year and to support the peace process," said OHCHR-N chief Richard Bennett commenting on the government decision to renew the the term of his office.
But he refrained from commenting on the new mandate saying he was yet to know the scope of the new mandate. Sources said the new mandate will be effective once Nepal and OHCHR sign it in Geneva before the OHCHR-N´s current term expires on Wednesday.
Published on 2010-06-06 23:03:01
Source: http://www.myrepublica.com/portal/index.php?action=news_details&news_id=19582
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