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 who were present during the June incident in [location redacted] 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 the women’s rights organisation’s 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 operating in the province.
This is a shorter version of the original communication.
BACKGROUND
Topic: the harassment of women’s rights organisation [name redacted] and its members in two separate incidents.
ALLEGATIONS
On 28 May 2024, the landlord of the building occupied by women’s rights organisation [name redacted] in [location redacted] 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 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 staff members to immediately vacate the premises.
Prior to this incident, the women’s rights organisation’s district coordinator [name redacted] 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 the women’s rights organisation’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, the women’s rights organisation decided to move their [location redacted] 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, the women’s rights organisation registered a First Information Report (FIR) at the District Police Office in [location redacted]. 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 [name redacted] office compound in [location redacted], 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 women’s rights organisation, using demeaning and vulgar language. They also threatened the women human rights defenders who were present with rape and killing and said the women’s rights organisation 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 women’s rights organisation were able to identify and name four of the perpetrators as members of the local community.
On 26 June 2024, the women’s rights organisation registered the case with the Chief District Office in [location redacted].
On 30 June 2024, a First Information Report was lodged at the District Police Office, in [location redacted]. While the women’s rights organisation’s 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 organisation 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. The women’s rights organisation [name redacted] was told that the police had other priorities, which caused further distress to the women human rights defenders.
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 rights organisation [name redacted], 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 [location redacted].
In particular, we express grave concern about the alleged threats against the life and physical integrity of [names redacted]. 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 women human rights defenders in [name redacted], after the FIR was filed on 30 June 2024.