Issuing a statement, Global Policy Forum for Nepal (GPFN) - an institution established to assist Nepal by investing intellectual capital, technology, and know-how required in the formulation and implementation of its policies - has also said that it will assist the Government of Nepal towards bringing this matter to a greater attention of the international community and to take the matter to the international judicial institutions, if needed.
"We are of the view that India has committed a blatant violation against the rights of Nepal as a land-locked country under international law by imposing an unofficial economic blockade and by interfering in Nepal's internal affairs," reads the statement of the GPFN. Surya Prasad Subedi, Professor of International Law at the University of Leeds, heads the coordinating committee of the GPFN. Other members of the committee include Professor Dr Shiva Gautam of Harvard University, USA, Associate Professor of Surgery Dr Kumud Dhital of the University of New South Wales, Australia, Professor Katak Malla, Professor of International Law at the University of Stockholm,
Sweden, and Professor Upendra Dev Acharya, Professor of International Law at Gonzaga
Univeristy, USA.
"We denounce this open disregard of Nepal's freedom of action as a sovereign nation and call upon the Indian government to lift its economic blockade and recognize and respect the internationally guaranteed rights of its small land-locked neighbor," the statement added.
The group has also welcomed the new constitution of Nepal promulgated recently. It also said that it was concerned by the violations of human rights by the Nepal government in its response to the campaign launched by the people within the communities protesting to make their legitimate concerns addressed in the new constitution.
"We are equally concerned by the killing of a number of law enforcement officers and violence committed by those participating in the demonstrations. Therefore, we denounce the violence committed on both sides and call upon the Government to bring the perpetrators to justice," the statement added.
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