The following is based on a communication written by the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders and other UN experts to the Government of Nepal on 20 August 2024. The communication remained confidential for 60 days before being made public, giving the Government time to reply. Regrettably, the Government did not reply within this timeframe. If a reply is received it will be posted on the UN Special Procedures communications database.
Since the sending of the communication, on 11 September 2024, one of the women human rights defenders and WOREC staff members who were present during the June incident in Saptari was summoned to the district police office, where she was informed that the perpetrators had been called to the station and signed some documents, before being released. She was told by a police officer that those were instructions they had received from their superiors. The Special Rapporteur deeply regrets the absence of decisive action against those responsible for the attack on WOREC’s Saptari office, underscoring a concerning lack of accountability for acts of intimidation and violence against women human rights defenders. The Special Rapporteur renews her call for the Government of Nepal to ensure effective protection to women human rights defenders and staff members of WOREC operating in Madesh Pradesh province.
This is a shorter version of the original communication.
BACKGROUND
Topic: the harassment of women’s rights organisation WOREC and its members in two separate incidents.
The Women’s Rehabilitation Center (WOREC) is a non-governmental organisation (NGO) dedicated to the protection and the promotion of women’s rights in Nepal. Created in 1991, WOREC works to prevent violence against women and to ensure the economic, social and cultural well-being of women as well as other marginalised groups by promoting their access to rights and social justice.
Ms. Mamata Sah, Ms. Diwani Ghimire, Ms. Prativa Singh and Ms. Bina Kumari Singh are women human rights defenders and staff members of the Women Friendly Space (WFS), a women’s space established by WOREC in Mahottari district, Madesh Pradesh province, to support the local Dalit and Muslim communities after they were affected by a fire outbreak in the area. The WFS provides psychosocial and legal counselling, maternity care services as well as general information on access to justice and human rights.
Ms. Rambha Kumari Sardar, Ms. Manju Devi Mahato, Ms. Sabina Kumari Chaudhary and Ms. Ranjana Kumari Chaudhary are women human rights defenders and staff members of the Sneha Center, established by WOREC in Saptari district, Madesh Pradesh province, to support an Emergency Response Program to the landless community in Saptari after they were affected by a fire outbreak in their locality.
ALLEGATIONS
On 28 May 2024, the landlord of the building occupied by WOREC’s Women Friendly Space (WFS) in Matihani Municipality Ward no. 6, Mahottari district, came into their office and proceeded to violently throw their equipment out of their premises to protest against the recruitment of a Dalit staff member by the office. The landlord’s wife also verbally abused the WFS staff members present there, threatening to slander them as “impure” and demanding that access to their building be denied to the Dalit staff member. They threatened to raise the rent and forced the WFS staff members, including Ms. Mamata Sah, Ms. Diwani Ghimire, Ms. Prativa Singh and Ms. Bina Kumari Singh, to immediately vacate the premises.
Prior to this incident, WOREC’s district coordinator Ms. Bina Kumari Singh had received several phone calls from their landlord, including the night before, threatening them with eviction if they did not restrict access to the building to the Dalit staff member.
On 31 May 2024, staff members of WOREC’s office went to the police to relay what had happened. The police initially took the incident lightly, but the women human rights defenders insisted on the seriousness of the incident and its discriminatory nature.
On 1 June 2024, WOREC decided to move their Mahottari district office to another location, as their staff and the communities they support no longer felt safe from discrimination and harassment there.
On 3 June 2024, WOREC registered a First Information Report (FIR) at the District Police Office in Mahottari. The case was settled informally on the same day, when the police brought the landlord and his wife in front of the community to publicly apologise and seek forgiveness. Since the incident, the Nepali police has been using loudspeakers throughout the community to spread messages against caste-based discrimination.
In a separate incident, on the night of 23 June 2024, at around 11.30 p.m., a group of five local young men gathered at the entrance of the Sneha Center office compound in Mahadev Rural Municipality Ward no. 1, Saptari district, and attempted to break in by repeatedly kicking the gate and throwing stones at it. They then proceeded to hurl verbal abuse at the staff members of the Sneha Center, including Ms. Rambha Kumari Sardar, Ms. Manju Devi Mahato, Ms. Sabina Kumari Chaudhary and Ms. Anjana Kumari Chaudhary, using demeaning and vulgar language. They also threatened the women human rights defenders who were present with rape and killing and said the Sneha Center should be shut down. The situation escalated until dozens of local community members, including two members of the national police, gathered outside and stopped them. The young men even threw stones at the police force. Staff members of the Sneha Center were able to identify and name four of the perpetrators as members of the local community.
On 26 June 2024, the Sneha Center registered the case with the Chief District Office in Saptari.
On 30 June 2024, a First Information Report was lodged at the District Police Office, in Rajbiraj, Saptari. While the Sneha Center staff members initially intended to register the case under the offence of sexual harassment, the police advised against it and instead registered it under “indecent conduct”, as per section 118 of the 2017 National Penal Code. The Center was told the case was now being investigated, but no arrest has been carried out at the time of writing, despite most of the alleged perpetrators having been identified as members of the local community. WOREC was told that the police had other priorities, which caused further distress to the women human rights defenders of the Sneha Center.
CONCERNS
In the communication, we express our serious concern at the alleged threats, acts of intimidation and verbal harassment targeting women human rights defenders affiliated with the Women’s Rehabilitation Center, as well as the physical attacks on their offices, which appear to be related to their work in support of women and marginalised communities in the Mahottari and Saptari districts of Madesh Pradesh province.
In particular, we express grave concern about the alleged threats against the life and physical integrity of Ms. Rambha Kumari Sardar, Ms. Manju Devi Mahato, Ms. Sabina Kumari Chaudhary and Ms. Ranjana Kumari Chaudhary. In this regard, we remind that States must ensure effective protection through judicial or other means to individuals and groups who are in danger of extra-legal, arbitrary or summary executions, including those who receive death threats and must take reasonable, positive measures that do not impose disproportionate burdens on them in response to reasonably foreseeable threats to life.
We would like to further convey our concern regarding the alleged delay into the investigation of the allegations of threats and intimidations against the WOREC women human rights defenders in Saptari district, after the FIR was filed on 30 June 2024.
