“OHCHR supports government efforts to counter criminal activity, increase public security and enhance respect for the law, but stresses that these initiatives should be consistent with international human rights standards and the Interim Constitution,” the UN rights body said, adding, “Unfortunately, over the years, OHCHR monitoring teams have documented a troubling pattern in which the security forces resort to the use of excessive and sometimes unwarranted lethal force during their operations.” [break]
Releasing a report entitled “Investigating Allegations of Extra-Judicial Killings in the Tarai”, OHCHR-N further said that “non-state” armed groups have taken advantage of a law and order vacuum, and accused them of being engaged in killings, abductions, threats and extortion.
“This has taken a severe toll on local communities, and also on the morale of the police,” said the UN rights body in the report.
OHCHR-N further reported that it has noted some preliminary indications that violent criminal activity has decreased since the government introduced the Special Security Plan in 2009.
“Though the plan incorporates a commitment to protecting human rights, credible allegations of unlawful killings have continued to surface, most of which,
according to information received by OHCHR, have gone uninvestigated,” OHCHR-N said.
Releasing the report, OHCHR-N has recommended that the government take immediate steps to fulfill obligations to fully investigate all allegations of extra-judicial killings in the context of the current Special Security Plan and past and future security operations.
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