KATHMANDU, March 23: United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Nepal (OHCHR-Nepal) clarified on Monday that High Commissioner Navi Pillay didn´t mean to draw Nepal-Rwanda parallel while describing the situation of human rights in Nepal during her press conference Sunday.
OHCHR-Nepal Spokesperson Marty Logan said in a letter to editors that Pillay had referred to Rwanda once, "in a very precise way". "The comparison is between the experiences of victims of human rights violations," the letter said. "The high commissioner did not intend to compare the human rights situation in Nepal with that of Rwanda; unfortunately, that is the impression that some readers might have taken from your coverage." [break]
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Logan clarified that Pillay, who had served with the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) for eight years, had compared the stories that she heard from victims of human rights violations in Rwanda to stories that she heard from victims in Nepal.
"Their stories were similar and painfully reminiscent of the dozens that I heard during my eight years working with the ICTR – the families want the truth so they can have a sense of closure; they need reparations so they can start rebuilding their lives; and, most of all, they want justice," Pillay had told the press conference on Sunday, before wrapping up her five-day visit to Nepal.
