Nepal´s Permanent Representative to the United Nations and Other International Organizations in Geneva, Dr Dinesh Bhattarai, handed over a letter to this effect to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights on Wednesday. [break]
"The government has asked OHCHR to execute the June 1 decision of the government," Bhattarai said about the letter.
The decision taken six months ago said that OHCHR-N was to prepare an exit strategy within six months. The timeframe expired on Thursday.
The government terminated the mandate for OHCHR-N despite mounting pressure from the main opposition parties -- Nepali Congress and CPN-UML-- and the international community, including the UN Secretary-General, to renew the term.
"This is an issue to be decided through consensus. But the government terminated the term unilaterally. It is not acceptable," said Nepali Congress leader Dr Ram Sharan Mahat, reacting to the development.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had called Prime Minister Dr Baburam Bhattarai Thursday evening to request a term extension for OHCHR-N. But the prime minister told Ban that the government would not extend the term, saying it wanted to strengthen the National Human Rights Commission, according to Biswadeep Pandey, the prime minister´s personal aide.
Mahat, however, said OHCHR-N can be reinstated once a government of consensus is formed. "Once we join the government, the decision can be revised," he said when asked whether OHCHR-N can be reinstated even though it will be commencing a wind-up period from Friday onward.
The government´s letter to OHCHR is silent on how much time it will give the UN human rights body to close down its office. The letter is also not clear whether it should be taken as a termination notification as required by the agreement between the government and OHCHR. The agreement requires the government to give a notification of mandate termination six months in advance.
But Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs Naryankaji Shrestha told Republica that the June 1 letter should be taken as notification of termination, adding that the government will give sufficient time for OHCHR-N to wind up its operations.
"In general, six months´ time is given for winding up purposes. But as the government has already given six months to prepare the exit strategy, we will determine the timeframe required to wind up OHCHR-N after holding consultations with OHCHR-N officials," he told Republica when asked how much time the government will give the UN rights body to wrap up.
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