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NEPAL: Legal aid NGO is denied access to detainees for filing an application for medical check-up on behalf of a torture vi

June 5, 2007

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ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION - URGENT APPEALS PROGRAMME

Urgent Appeal

6 June 2007
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UA-181-2007: NEPAL: Legal aid NGO is denied access to detainees for filing an application for medical check-up on behalf of a torture victim 

NEPAL: Denial of justice; persecution against human rights defenders; torture
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Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has learned that Advocacy Forum, one of the leading human rights organizations in Nepal providing legal aid services to detainees, has been refused access to detainees at District Police Office (DPO), Banke detention centre since 29 May 2007. The denial of Advocacy Forum's access to the DPO took place soon after the organization lawyers filed an application for a medical check-up in the court on behalf of a torture victim named Bablu Rai. To see details of Bablu Rai's case, please see our Urgent Appeal UA-179-2007. In fact, this is not the first time that lawyers of Advocacy Forum have been refused access to the detainees. The organization's lawyers had been previously denied access to the prisoners at the Kanchanpur detention centre in February 2007. Advocacy Forum later re-gained access to prisoners at the detention centre within a few days due to the support shown by readers of these UAs (See: UA-070-2007 and UP-055-2007). We once again call for your urgent solidarity action to solve this matter and support Advocacy Forum. 

CASE DETAILS:

In the morning on May 29, an inspector at DPO, Banke denied AF lawyers' access to detainees in the regular visit saying 'the higher authority has decided not to allow Advocacy Forum to visit the detainees in the DPO detention center'. On the same day, a lawyer from the Advocacy Forum Regional Office in Nepalgunj attempted to regain access to the detention center by phoning the Superintendent of Police (SP) Mr. Uttam Karki, the Chief of the DPO, Banke. However the SP defended the decision to deny Advocacy Forum lawyers' access to detainees stating, "You (Advocacy Forum) have made unnecessary reports stating that Bablu Rai was tortured by the police, even though we did not torture him". The SP then ended the phone conversation. On 22 May 2007, Advocacy Forum filed an application for a medical check-up on the behalf of a torture victim, Bablu Rai, in Banke District Court.

To briefly explain Bablu Rai's case, he was arrested with the charge of drug smuggling on 6 May 2007 and then severely tortured by the officers of the Jamunaha Police Post, Nepalgunj, Banke district. His right to receive medical check-up had been denied during his detention in DPO, Banke. He is now being remanded at DPO. There is a concern that Bablu Rai's prolonged detention without any medical attention or check-up is for destroying the physical evidence of torture on his body. For further details of Bablu Rai's case, please also see our Urgent Appeal UA-179-2007.

On May 31, lawyers from the Advocacy Forum Regional Office in Nepalgunj had a meeting with the SP Mr. Uttam Karki and the Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Mr. Kuber Kadayat to discuss the matter. During the meeting, the SP allegedly blamed Advocacy Forum for giving the DPO "unnecessary burdens." The SP said that Advocacy Forum lawyers should have a written letter from the detainees giving the lawyers authority to represent them prior to being granted access to the detainees. The SP also stated, "The entire country believes me but you [Advocacy Forum] do not know how to deal with me." He further accused Advocacy Forum of fabricating Bablu Rai’s claim and promised that he would continue to work on his own terms. Since then, Advocacy Forum tried to solve the problem talking with the higher authorities at DPO but all efforts went in vain.

Finally, on June 3, a representative from Advocacy Forum's central office in Kathmandu met with the Human Rights Police Cell in the Kathmandu Police Headquarters. The inspector Mr. Manoj K.C. assured that he would discuss the matter with the higher office at Police Headquarter and try to solve the problem soon. However no progress has yet been made.

BACKGROUND INFORMATIOIN:

In fact, this is not the first time that lawyers of Advocacy Forum were refused access to the detainees. The organization's lawyers had been previously denied of accessing the prisoners at the Kanchanpur detention centre in February 2007, after demanding food for the detainees in the centre, who were not taken to the court. Later Advocacy Forum gained fee access to prisoners at the Kanchanpur detention centre, after Ministry of Home Affairs, which received so many appeal letters every day, directed the SP of Kanchanpur to respond to this matter (See also: UA-070-2007 and UP-055-2007). 

Advocacy Forum is an organisation providing legal aid to prisoners in police detention centres since 2001. Since there is no state mechanism that ensures detainees have access to lawyers as promised by the constitution of Nepal, Advocacy Forum lawyers are visiting different detention centres regularly in order to provide pro bono legal services. For the last 3 years, Advocacy Forum has been visiting 35 detention centres throughout the country after general understanding was reached between the police authority (Police Human Rights Cell) and the organization. The police authority gave permission for Advocacy Forum to monitor human rights and provide legal aid. AF is the only NGO in country that has been given this authority and now Banke DPO is the only detention centre to deny AF's visits to persons in custody. 

SUGGESTED ACTION:
Please write the relevant Nepalese authorities and demand that Advocacy Forum be allowed to continue their legal aid programme in the police detention center at Banke district, Nepal. Please ask them to inquire into SP Mr. Uttam Karki’s his role in this denial of justice. Also urge the concerned authorities to investigate the torture of Bablu Rai. The AHRC has already reported this matter to the UN Special Representative of the Secretary General for human rights defenders.

To support this appeal, please click:

Sample letter:

Dear __________,

NEPAL: Legal aid NGO is denied access to detainees for filing an application for medical check up on behalf of a torture victim

Victims:
1) Advocacy Forum, Local NGO offering legal aid to detainees
2) Mr. Bablu Rai alias Sojhe, aged 34, the resident of Nepalgunj Metropolitan City-15, Banke district, Nepal (torture victim)
Those responsible: Superintendent of Police (SP) Mr. Uttam Karki of the District Police Office (DPO), Banke
Place of incident: District Police Office, Banke district, Nepal
Date of incident: Since 29 May 2007 to date

I am writing to voice my deep concern over the SP Mr. Uttam Karki's decision to refuse one local NGO Advocacy Forum's access to detainees at the District Police Office, Banke since 29 May 2007. I want to inform you that the denial of Advocacy Forum's access to the detainees at the DPO took place within a week after Advocacy Forum had filed a complaint in the Banke District Court for a medical check-up on the behalf of one torture victim Mr. Bablu Rai.  

During the phone conversation with one lawyer from Advocacy Forum Regional Office in Nepalgunj on May 29, the SP Mr. Uttam Karki, the Chief of the DPO, Banke allegedly said, "You (Advocacy Forum) have made unnecessary reports stating that Bablu Rai was tortured by the police, even though we did not torture him". The said SP further allegedly blamed Advocacy Forum for giving the DPO "unnecessary burdens" and "fabricating Bablu Rai's claim" during the meeting with lawyers of the Advocacy Forum Regional Office in Nepalgunj on May 31. The SP further requested that Advocacy Forum lawyers should have a written letter from the detainees giving the lawyers an authority to represent them in prior to access the detainees.

To help your understanding about Bablu Rai's case, he was arrested with the charge of drug smuggling on 6 May 2007 and allegedly subjected to severe torture by the officers of the Jamunaha Police Post, Nepalgunj, Banke district. He is still being detained at the DPO, Banke for further investigation. During entire period of his detention, Bablu Rai has reportedly not been given medical check-up, which is the mandatory procedure to prevent torture or ill-treatment of persons in detention facilities.

I want to draw your attention that over the past 7 years, the Advocacy Forum has been visiting detention centres throughout the country after an agreement was reached between the police authority (Police Human Rights Cell) and the organization. Since there is no state mechanisms that ensure detainees have access to lawyers as promised by the constitution of Nepal, Advocacy Forum's important work should be properly awarded for curbing the custodial crimes in detention facilities in the country.

I therefore ask you to allow the Advocacy Forum to continue their legal aid programme at Banke district. I also ask that you launch an immediate and proper inquiry into SP Mr. Uttam Karki for his role to deny access to AF lawyers to detainees, in violation of an agreement was reached between the police authority (Police Human Rights Cell) and the organization. I further request you to order an proper investigation into the alleged torture of Bablu Rai and bring those responsible to justice as soon as possible.

Yours sincerely,


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PLEASE SEND YOUR LETTERS TO:

1. Mr. Krishna Sitaula
Home Minister
Singha Darbar
Kathmandu
NEPAL
Fax: +977 1 4211232
Email: moha@wlink.com.np

2. Mr. Yagya Murti Banjade
Attorney General
Office of Attorney General
Ramshahpath
Kathmandu
NEPAL
Fax: +977 1 4262582
Email: attorney@mos.com.np

3. Chairperson
National Human Rights Commission
Pulchowck, Lalitpur
NEPAL
Fax: +977 1 5547973
Email: complaints@nhrcnepal.org or nhrc@nhrcnepal.org

4. Mr. Om Bikram Rana
Inspector General of Police
Police Head Quarters, Naxal
Kathmandu
NEPAL
Fax: +977 1 4415593
Email: info@nepalpolice.gov.np  

5. SP Mr. Navaraj Silwal
Police HR Cell
Human Rights Cell
Nepal Police
Kathmandu
NEPAL
Fax: +977 1 4415593
Email: hrcell@nepalpolice.gov.np
 

Thank you.

Urgent Appeals Programme
Asian Human Rights Commission (ahrchk@ahrchk.org)


Document Type :
Urgent Appeal Case
Document ID :
UA-181-2007
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Extended Introduction: Urgent Appeals, theory and practice

A need for dialogue

Many people across Asia are frustrated by the widespread lack of respect for human rights in their countries.  Some may be unhappy about the limitations on the freedom of expression or restrictions on privacy, while some are affected by police brutality and military killings.  Many others are frustrated with the absence of rights on labour issues, the environment, gender and the like. 

Yet the expression of this frustration tends to stay firmly in the private sphere.  People complain among friends and family and within their social circles, but often on a low profile basis. This kind of public discourse is not usually an effective measure of the situation in a country because it is so hard to monitor. 

Though the media may cover the issues in a broad manner they rarely broadcast the private fears and anxieties of the average person.  And along with censorship – a common blight in Asia – there is also often a conscious attempt in the media to reflect a positive or at least sober mood at home, where expressions of domestic malcontent are discouraged as unfashionably unpatriotic. Talking about issues like torture is rarely encouraged in the public realm.

There may also be unwritten, possibly unconscious social taboos that stop the public reflection of private grievances.  Where authoritarian control is tight, sophisticated strategies are put into play by equally sophisticated media practices to keep complaints out of the public space, sometimes very subtly.  In other places an inner consensus is influenced by the privileged section of a society, which can control social expression of those less fortunate.  Moral and ethical qualms can also be an obstacle.

In this way, causes for complaint go unaddressed, un-discussed and unresolved and oppression in its many forms, self perpetuates.  For any action to arise out of private frustration, people need ways to get these issues into the public sphere.

Changing society

In the past bridging this gap was a formidable task; it relied on channels of public expression that required money and were therefore controlled by investors.  Printing presses were expensive, which blocked the gate to expression to anyone without money.  Except in times of revolution the media in Asia has tended to serve the well-off and sideline or misrepresent the poor.

Still, thanks to the IT revolution it is now possible to communicate with large audiences at little cost.  In this situation there is a real avenue for taking issues from private to public, regardless of the class or caste of the individual.

Practical action

The AHRC Urgent Appeals system was created to give a voice to those affected by human rights violations, and by doing so, to create a network of support and open avenues for action.  If X’s freedom of expression is denied, if Y is tortured by someone in power or if Z finds his or her labour rights abused, the incident can be swiftly and effectively broadcast and dealt with. The resulting solidarity can lead to action, resolution and change. And as more people understand their rights and follow suit, as the human rights consciousness grows, change happens faster. The Internet has become one of the human rights community’s most powerful tools.   

At the core of the Urgent Appeals Program is the recording of human rights violations at a grass roots level with objectivity, sympathy and competence. Our information is firstly gathered on the ground, close to the victim of the violation, and is then broadcast by a team of advocates, who can apply decades of experience in the field and a working knowledge of the international human rights arena. The flow of information – due to domestic restrictions – often goes from the source and out to the international community via our program, which then builds a pressure for action that steadily makes its way back to the source through his or her own government.   However these cases in bulk create a narrative – and this is most important aspect of our program. As noted by Sri Lankan human rights lawyer and director of the Asian Human Rights Commission, Basil Fernando:

"The urgent appeal introduces narrative as the driving force for social change. This idea was well expressed in the film Amistad, regarding the issue of slavery. The old man in the film, former president and lawyer, states that to resolve this historical problem it is very essential to know the narrative of the people. It was on this basis that a court case is conducted later. The AHRC establishes the narrative of human rights violations through the urgent appeals. If the narrative is right, the organisation will be doing all right."

Patterns start to emerge as violations are documented across the continent, allowing us to take a more authoritative, systemic response, and to pinpoint the systems within each country that are breaking down. This way we are able to discover and explain why and how violations take place, and how they can most effectively be addressed. On this path, larger audiences have opened up to us and become involved: international NGOs and think tanks, national human rights commissions and United Nations bodies.  The program and its coordinators have become a well-used tool for the international media and for human rights education programs. All this helps pave the way for radical reforms to improve, protect and to promote human rights in the region.