Human rights activists urge govt to ratify Rome statute

KATHMANDU, July 27: Human rights activists have urged the political parties to push the government to ratify the Rome Statute on International Criminal Court (ICC) and help end the state of impunity in the country. They have also drawn the attention of the decision-makers towards the "fake encounters", especially taking place in the Tarai in the recent weeks.



Speaking at an interaction program titled "End of impunity and ratification of ICC" in the capital on Monday, Krishna Kadel, founding president of the Human Rights and Peace Society (HURPES), said Nepal´s membership in the ICC was necessary to discourage unlawful killings by the state authorities. Accusing the parties of protecting the criminals, Kadel said, "Leaders have to stop using their political clout to release their men to end impunity in the society."



Rameshwor Nepal, executive director of Amnesty International-Nepal, said that Nepal has not ratified the Rome Statute on ICC as due to misunderstanding about its repercussions. He clarified that there would be no "overlapping” in state-handled cases by the ICC. "Exceptions can be made only by the Security Council resolutions," he explained. Nepal said that many political leaders were apprehensive about Nepal´s entry into ICC out of fear that they would be dragged into the ICC. He informed that Foreign Minister Sujata Koirala during a meeting on Sunday expressed her fear of the very possibility.



Similarly, Subodh Pyakurel, the Chairperson of INSEC, accused the previous governments of their reluctance to ratify the statute. Though the parliament had passed a resolution motion three years ago to ratify the ICC, the then Law Minister Dev Gurung insisted on a "new agreement" as a precondition to ratifying the statute.



Speaking at the function, co-chairman of the Madheshi People´s Rights Forum, Jayprakash Gupta said that a "political consensus" in this regard was yet to emerge. The proposal tabled during the then Foreign Minister Upendra Yadav´s tenure was gathering dust at the cabinet committee. The debate, he said, is whether the proposal should again be passed by the parliament or a cabinet decision would suffice.



Similarly, Laxman Prasad Ghimire, chief-whip of the Nepali Congress, expressed the commitment of his party to ratify the statute. Chief whips from CPN-UML and United CPN-Maoist were not present in the program.

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