KATHMANDU, May 25: Heads of the missions of 10 western countries have jointly urged Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal to renew the tenure of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Nepal (OHCHR-N), by a minimum one year and not to curtail the UN body´s mandate.
The ambassadors, who have been raising concern over OHCHR´s term extension on a number of occasions, joined hands to send a letter to the prime minister on May 12 after they came to learn government move to shrink the UN rights body´s scope and close its regional offices. [break]
"This time we wrote to express our strong support for the continued need of the present mandate of the OHCHR, including, for instance, access to official documents and detention centers, and to encourage the government to extend the mandate for a meaningful duration -- at least one year," said a diplomatic source.
Established in 2005, the UN rights body´s term is expiring after 16 days. But the government and the OHCHR are yet to agree on the scope of the mandate before the term is extended. Government sources said the mandate is likely to be renewed by one year.
Officials involved in negotiations with OHCHR said the government wants to restrict current unhindered movement of the UN rights body and deny access to documents.
"But the OHCHR is seeking unrestricted and unnoticed access and visits to any places it wants in regard to human rights issues," said a senior official involved in negotiations with the OHCHR.
The government wants to shrink the scope of mandate arguing that the time and context when OHCHR came to Nepal has changed.
But those who advocate for continuation of the present mandate of OHCHR-N say that there is still much to do on protection and promotion of human rights in Nepal and the National Human Rights Commission is not in a position to take up that responsibility in the absence of OHCHR-N.
"OHCHR´s work complements the National Human Rights Commission´s work as a national institution but the ultimate goal is for NHRC to be able to effectively protect and promote human rights on its own," said the diplomatic source.