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Nepal

Nepal in Crisis - Justice Caught in the Crossfire - September 2002

In 2002, the IBA undertook a fact-finding mission to Nepal in response to reports of the arrest, detention and ill-treatment of a number of lawyers. The arrests took place against the background of an order declaring the Communist Party of Nepal to be a terrorist organisation. The aim of the mission was to examine the freedom of the legal profession in Nepal; the reasons behind the arrests; and the accordance of the arrests with Nepal’s obligations under international law. The mission's recommendations can be found in the report below.

Click here for the full report.

Background

Since the Maoist insurgency in 1996 Nepal has been in political turmoil. The massacre of the royal family in 2001 led to the breakdown of a two-year ceasefire and shortly following this the prime minister and his cabinet were dismissed and elections halted. In 2005, a state of emergency was called in which party leaders were impisoned and the king assumed absolute power. In the absence of any steps to reinstate democratic processes and the rule of law since that time and in response to the injury and arrest of 89 lawyers at a demonstration in April 2006, the IBA sent an intervention letter to His Majesty King Gyanendra Bir Bikram Shah calling for Nepal to implement its obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Click here to view the press release.

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