KATHMANDU, Aug 8: Newly-appointed Supreme Court Justice Sapana Pradhan Malla has been consulting the government and UN agencies concerned over the process of resigning from the United Nations Committee against Torture (CAT), to which she was elected as an independent expert member in 2014.

“I had asked the secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs about the process for resignation from the position, and recently the Geneva High Commission responded on my queries, saying the resignation should be submitted to the UN Secretary General,” Justice Malla told Republica.

Malla said that she is resigning from the CAT position because of her workload as Supreme Court justice.

The Parliamentary Hearings Special Committee confirmed her last week as a justice at the apex court.

“In the UN system, a CAT membership is not a remunerated position,” she said. “And as CAT members cannot hear cases related to their own countries or fellow citizens, there is no conflict of interest.”

There are judges from different countries in different UN human rights committees. “However, I have decided to quit the position and have already started consultations with the government and the UN bodies,” she said.

Malla was elected a member of CAT for a term of four years representing Nepal. 
She said that she is not attending a CAT meeting now ongoing in Geneva. “CAT members attend three meetings in a year, but I am not attending the ongoing meeting since I decided to resign from the position right after I assumed the position of SC justice,” Malla said.

 
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