Archive ref no: NCA-20101
Date: 2006-02-22
NHRC recommendation to release detained leaders, rights activists, 22 February 2006
The National Human Rights Commission has expressed its deep concerns over the house arrest of Madhav Kumar Nepal, the General Secretary of CPN (UML) and the detention of political leaders, human rights activists and civil society leaders by the government for a long time without reasonable and sufficient reasons.
Freedom of expression, right to peaceful assembly and freedom of movement are the rights guaranteed by the Constitution of the Kingdom of Nepal and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Article 15 of the Constitution has the provision based on fundamental rights and states, "No person shall be held under preventive detention unless there is a sufficient ground of existence of an immediate threat to the sovereignty, integrity or law and order situation of the Kingdom of Nepal". Article 9 (1) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, 1966, to which Nepal is a party, states that "No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest or detention."
The Commission believes that keeping persons under house arrest and detention in the present situation for a long time is in violation of national and international legal commitments of the government. The Commission therefore recommends to His Majesty Government to respect the rule of law by releasing the persons who are kept under house arrest and arbitrarily detained without reasonable and sufficient reasons.
Radha Krishna Upreti
Under-Secretary