INSEC published its Nepal Human Rights Year Book 2016 on Friday, recording 6,357 victims of human rights violation and abuse in the year 2015. The number of victims increased by over 1,000 as the number in 2014 was 5,389.
The year book records that 5,122 people were victimized by non-state actors while state actors violated the rights of 1,235 persons. INSEC documented altogether 115 females and 1,120 males who became victims of human rights violation by state actors, while 4,525 females and 596 males became victims of non-state actors.
The year book has recorded altogether 307 people killed in the year 2015. Of the total number, 37 were killed by state actors, including five children, during protests staged against provincial demarcations.
"This year, the people of the Tarai-Madhes region became victims of human rights violations due to the Tarai-Madhes agitations. The excessive use of force by security personal and the barbaric activities of agitating groups during the agitations are included as major incidents of human rights violation this year," said Bijay Raj Gautam, executive director of INSEC.
"The brutal killing of eight police personnel and a child in Tikapur, Kailali by an agitating group, the police firing at an open market in Bethari, Rupandehi that left six people dead, including two children, and the killing of Armed Police Force ASI Thaman BK after dragging him out of an ambulance are representative incidents of human rights violation this year," he added.
INSEC recorded the forced disappearance of a civilian by personnel of the Armed Police Force in Sindhupalchowk. The whereabouts of Kumar Tamang, 20, of Hagam VDC was not made public till the end of 2015 though he was arrested from his room in Tatopani on March 25, 2015 on charges of supplying a cooking gas cylinder to China.
Violence against Women and Children
INSEC has recorded 4,640 women victimized in 2015. Among them, 103 women were killed by their own family members. The number was 114 in the previous year.
The year 2015 saw 259 women raped and 135 become victims of rape attempts. Likewise, 51 women were victims of accusation of practicing witchcraft, 62 were victims of sexual abuse and 2,707 became victims of domestic violence.
"Police settled most of the cases registered at the Women and Children Service Centers (WCSC) of district police offices across the country through reconciliation between the two sides. The district police offices said that while settling cases of domestic violence in accordance with the reconciliation provisions of the Domestic Violence Act, they have to give priority to compromise between the two sides," the year book stated.
"There is a trend of settling cases of domestic violence of a grave nature, taking advantage of some loopholes in the Act, and this was given continuity this year also," it further stated.
Likewise, the year book states that there was no reduction in incidents related to sexual abuse of girls this past year. Altogether 492 girls were raped and 200 became victims of sexual harassment while 36 children became victims of human trafficking.
However, the year book considers the promulgation of the new constitution a hope for the country.
"The year 2015 was marked as a historic year for Nepal as elected representatives drafted the constitution. Nepal established a new identity by becoming the 43rd nation in the world to draft a constitution through a Constituent Assembly.
The constitution is not only the main law of the country but also a foundation to rest the decade long transition," the report stated.
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