Miscellaneous
NHRC protests govt neglect of its recommendations
Tired of the government’s reluctance to implement its recommendations, the National Human Rights Commission has charged the executive with diminishing the role of the constitutional body.Tired of the government’s reluctance to implement its recommendations, the National Human Rights Commission has charged the executive with diminishing the role of the constitutional body.
NHRC officials have asked lawmakers to press the government to implement reports of the rights watchdog. Expressing their views in a meeting of the Parliamentary Committee on Social Justice and Human Rights on Tuesday, they said the commission’s role was ineffective when its recommendations are not implemented.
Every year the NHRC, after probing cases of human rights violation, urges the government to book the culprits. However, on an average, hardly 14 percent of its recommendations are implemented.
“The government is never serious about implementing our recommendations. We ask you [lawmakers] to press the government for it,” NHRC Chairman Anup Raj Sharma told the meeting.
According to records, the rights body recommended 735 cases of rights violations for action between 2000 and 2013 but only 103 were fully implemented by the government. A majority of the implemented cases are payment of compensation to victims.
In the 17 years since the commission’s formation, the government has promoted and awarded numerous police and Army officials who were supposed to be booked for human rights violations.
They claimed that the legal provision that the final decision to conduct judicial trial of the cases recommended by the NHRC lies in the attorney general is a major hurdle in honouring the recommendations.
Following pressure from different quarters, the government tabled the reports of the NHRC in Parliament for discussion for the first time in April this year though it was supposed to be done every year.
“We will summon the concerned government officials to inquire why the NHRC’s recommendations are not implemented,” Committee Chairman Sushil Kumar Shrestha said.