Kathmandu: Nepal government has failed to take significant steps towards fulfilling numerous key human rights commitments in 2012, US based Human Rights Watch has said.
"In Nepal, the failures included a lack of movement on measures to improve the rights of women, children, and Tibetan refugees," teh global rights group said in its Annual World Report 2013.
In the 665-page report published yesterday, HRW also said that despite policy initiatives aimed to ensure equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people as well as an inclusive education system for children with disabilities, the government rhetoric for those initiatives exceeded actual implementation.
"2012 was a sorry replay of Nepal's past seven years of impunity and government unwillingness or inability to deliver on its commitments to human rights," said?Brad Adams, Asia director for the rights group.
In 2012, the Nepal government again ignored its human rights obligations built into the 2006 Comprehensive Peace Accord, the report said.
"At least 13,000 people were killed and over 1,600 became victims of 'disappearances' during the decade-long conflict from 1996-2006 between government forces and Maoist rebels".
The report also noted that "a May deadline to draft a new constitution lapsed, and since then the country has been left with a caretaker cabinet and without an elected legislature, with only vague promises of fresh elections."
Instead of seeking justice for serious abuses, the government has consistently promoted officials and military officers linked to serious rights violations to senior positions, said the report expressing concern.
The Nepal government had refused to extend the tenure of the Nepal office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in March 2012.
PTI
First Published: Saturday, February 02, 2013, 20:19