Almost all of us think that security, justice and peace are something which are to be taken care of by somebody else--not ourselves--by state, by some agencies or some organizations. We forget that these are integral part of our life and society--in whatever profession we are in. We have to face violence, intimidation, injustice, inequality, hatred, and so on almost daily in our life. In post-conflict societies, as ours, it becomes our duty to establish peace through security and justice. The educational institutions play important roles to respond to the need of the society. They need to reform their educational structures. The educators need to have more knowledge and skills and they need to take actions to work toward 'positive and real' peace. We need to broaden and deepen our thinking about peace and reconciliation for enduring peace in Nepal. We must do something from our side; not just wait somebody to do it for us.
12 Nov 2009
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Violence against women and access to justice
Synopsis of the research work that I completed on the violence against women and access to justice few months before.
The violence against women is important to justice; women having problems with access to justice is more so. The culture of society is the way of life of its members. Nepali societies stand upon moral and cultural values. Any one member of a family falling victim to sexual assault is a source of stress for the whole family and community. The relationship between the victim and family members and communities turn stressful and often end up in disasters. The societies stigmatize, intimidate, coerce and exclude these victims instead of providing protection. Many victims fear to report the crime to shun such social behaviors. Even if some choose to do so for legal justice, they encounter multiple problems in the process. On the other hand, many such cases which are under investigation are either dropped or neutralized because of financial or political pressures. Therefore, quite often, rape and sexual assaults are considered victimless offences.
The access of women victims to justice is not properly safeguarded in Nepal. The formal processes of the criminal justice system have been the most vulnerable to critique from the perspective of victims. The majority of victims are of the opinion that they are largely “forgotten or abandoned” in the justice delivery process. Major obstacles continue to prevent most victims from seeking justice. The existing criminal justice system is criticized for failure to addressing a range of needs and rights of victim. This system has not been able to deliver even the minimum services to the victims; the system behaves in a negative way. The criminal justice system treats victims not as human but as “piece of evidence” only.
The rape trials are widely criticized for the insensitivity and repeated and persistent questioning of complaints about minor details and inconsistencies and the use of cross examination strategies designed to show that the victims did not react as ‘real’ victims would have reacted. The defendant lawyers always think the victims are playing one or the other ‘naatak’— drama. In such situations, the victims choose to silently suffer the trauma and pain for the whole life. They lose access to political, social, and economic opportunities. They are further pushed to the precipice of tragedy. One of the rape victims related her experience: “I feel lonely and isolated. I’ve always had so much to say, and I’ve never said it. What’s hindered me the most is being so skilled at being silent. Incest has had so much to do with being silenced and silencing myself.”
The violence against women is important to justice; women having problems with access to justice is more so. The culture of society is the way of life of its members. Nepali societies stand upon moral and cultural values. Any one member of a family falling victim to sexual assault is a source of stress for the whole family and community. The relationship between the victim and family members and communities turn stressful and often end up in disasters. The societies stigmatize, intimidate, coerce and exclude these victims instead of providing protection. Many victims fear to report the crime to shun such social behaviors. Even if some choose to do so for legal justice, they encounter multiple problems in the process. On the other hand, many such cases which are under investigation are either dropped or neutralized because of financial or political pressures. Therefore, quite often, rape and sexual assaults are considered victimless offences.
The access of women victims to justice is not properly safeguarded in Nepal. The formal processes of the criminal justice system have been the most vulnerable to critique from the perspective of victims. The majority of victims are of the opinion that they are largely “forgotten or abandoned” in the justice delivery process. Major obstacles continue to prevent most victims from seeking justice. The existing criminal justice system is criticized for failure to addressing a range of needs and rights of victim. This system has not been able to deliver even the minimum services to the victims; the system behaves in a negative way. The criminal justice system treats victims not as human but as “piece of evidence” only.
The rape trials are widely criticized for the insensitivity and repeated and persistent questioning of complaints about minor details and inconsistencies and the use of cross examination strategies designed to show that the victims did not react as ‘real’ victims would have reacted. The defendant lawyers always think the victims are playing one or the other ‘naatak’— drama. In such situations, the victims choose to silently suffer the trauma and pain for the whole life. They lose access to political, social, and economic opportunities. They are further pushed to the precipice of tragedy. One of the rape victims related her experience: “I feel lonely and isolated. I’ve always had so much to say, and I’ve never said it. What’s hindered me the most is being so skilled at being silent. Incest has had so much to do with being silenced and silencing myself.”
Friday, April 23, 2010
Controlling small arms
On 31 Jan 2010 I had a live interview with Antenna Foundation FM Radio on controlling small arms. I stressed on regulating issuance of arms to police and army personnel on the basis of psychological tests. I also stressed on the need to stop issuing new arms licences and drive campaign to confiscate all illegal small arms.
A talk with UNMIN
I had a meeting with Mr. Hughes Gordon--the Advisor to UNMIN on 15 Jan 2010. The meeting revolved around the integration of Maoist ex-combatants into the security forces. My views in this case were:
Only ex-combatatnts should be integrated, not combatants with arms;
Ex-combatants should not be integrated in bulk--not in the strength of platoon or company;
The Maoist should disown the ex-combatants once they are integrated;
The security forces should not make any discrimination to these ex-combatants;
Unions inside the security forces should not be allowed.
Only ex-combatatnts should be integrated, not combatants with arms;
Ex-combatants should not be integrated in bulk--not in the strength of platoon or company;
The Maoist should disown the ex-combatants once they are integrated;
The security forces should not make any discrimination to these ex-combatants;
Unions inside the security forces should not be allowed.
Police Reforms
On 24 Magh 2066 (7 Feb. 2010), Jamim Shah was murdered on broad daylight in Kathmandu street. Soon after his murder, India’s government-controlled news agency Press Trust of India wrote about Shah: “The Nepali media mogul is alleged to have links with the underworld, including Dawood Ibrahim and Chota Rajan, allegations he had consistently denied. It was also alleged that his TV channel had received investments from underworld sources.” The TOI says about Shah’s newspapers: “Shah also ran a newspaper, Space Time, that carried anti-India propaganda.” And about his Dawood, ISI links: “In 2004, he came under the ire of the Indian government who asked Nepal to freeze the assets of Space Time Network, alleging that it was funded by Dawood. Shah is also believed to have had ISI links. However, he had stoutly denied both allegations.”
Time will tell whether Jamim was involved with Ibrahim or not. There are already speculations that he had had some relationship.
Read more
Contract killing in Nepal
Investigation of organized crime
On 13 Jan 2010, I presented my views in a seminar organized by Nepal Security Sector Network (NSSN) in Kathmandu. In this presentation i briefly talked about the current police challenges:
Post-conflict situation;
Organized crime;
Impunity;
Losing community trust; and
Policing in federal set up.
The second part of the presentatio was on the actions required: Defining national interests and developing national security policy;
Developing new police structures;
Depoliticization of police;
Demilitarization of police;
Decentralization and Democratization of police.
The third part of the lecture was on the Special Security Program. My views were that this program was brought in haste without much planning and preparations. This program had actually no 'special' package at all.
The possible entry points for the police reforms could be:
Police structure in federal state;
Police strategic plan;
Police administration and management;
Police training.
Sunday, December 07, 2008
Children of street
07 Dec 2008
It was 19 Nov 2008. We, some members of the Centre for Security and Justice Studies (CSJS), went to the office of Street Talent Concern Nepal (STCN)—an NGO founded by street children themselves which is working for the rehabilitation of the street children—to talk to some street children gathered up there. There are several children’s homes but the problems of street children remain unaddressed. Our objective of the visit was to find out prospects to reintegrate the street children back to their families and societies.
The first thing that we all noticed was the strong smell of the dendrite (malham as they nick named it), a chemical substance used for furniture. Some of these children were inhaling the stuff. They told that these stuffs gave them some kind of “kick” and intoxication. These dendrites were easily available in the local market for seventy rupees (1US $). Manoj Khadka related that his grand father had brought him to Kathmandu. Now he enjoys his life in the street. He does some begging for money. He is aware of some children’s homes in the city which provide food to new comers and only biscuits to “old” children. Saroj Praiyar of Panauti said that he remembers coming with his mother who has eloped with three persons.
These children spend their nights under the open sky without anything to protect them from cold. The pavements of the streets and temples are their usual hangouts. They often spend days without food. They are engaged in rag picking, stealing, begging, pick-pocketing, and robbing “murga” –a drunk and helpless victim. These children fall prey to the early habits of smoking, drinking, drugs, and sexual abuse. The smaller ones are tortured by the hoodlums or “dada”. They take away the money from these small children. Often these small children fall from the river bridge and die in an attempt to escape from these “goondas.” As these children grow older they avoid begging and rags picking. They adopt new tactics to live. They indulge in bigger crimes.
The previous studies have shown that the tendency for children to turn into street is associated with landless families involved in low paid non-agricultural activities. Many of them are cases of single parent or stepparent families whose illiterate guardians do not care for them. Although many of these children would prefer to stay on the street and not rejoin the society as they enjoy the freedom, albeit precarious, of their lifestyle and regard social life as constrained; there are others who really want to resume their studies and go back to their homes. We think, there are opportunities to reintegrate these street children with their families and society.
Dr. Govind P. Thapa
President, CSJS
It was 19 Nov 2008. We, some members of the Centre for Security and Justice Studies (CSJS), went to the office of Street Talent Concern Nepal (STCN)—an NGO founded by street children themselves which is working for the rehabilitation of the street children—to talk to some street children gathered up there. There are several children’s homes but the problems of street children remain unaddressed. Our objective of the visit was to find out prospects to reintegrate the street children back to their families and societies.
The first thing that we all noticed was the strong smell of the dendrite (malham as they nick named it), a chemical substance used for furniture. Some of these children were inhaling the stuff. They told that these stuffs gave them some kind of “kick” and intoxication. These dendrites were easily available in the local market for seventy rupees (1US $). Manoj Khadka related that his grand father had brought him to Kathmandu. Now he enjoys his life in the street. He does some begging for money. He is aware of some children’s homes in the city which provide food to new comers and only biscuits to “old” children. Saroj Praiyar of Panauti said that he remembers coming with his mother who has eloped with three persons.
These children spend their nights under the open sky without anything to protect them from cold. The pavements of the streets and temples are their usual hangouts. They often spend days without food. They are engaged in rag picking, stealing, begging, pick-pocketing, and robbing “murga” –a drunk and helpless victim. These children fall prey to the early habits of smoking, drinking, drugs, and sexual abuse. The smaller ones are tortured by the hoodlums or “dada”. They take away the money from these small children. Often these small children fall from the river bridge and die in an attempt to escape from these “goondas.” As these children grow older they avoid begging and rags picking. They adopt new tactics to live. They indulge in bigger crimes.
The previous studies have shown that the tendency for children to turn into street is associated with landless families involved in low paid non-agricultural activities. Many of them are cases of single parent or stepparent families whose illiterate guardians do not care for them. Although many of these children would prefer to stay on the street and not rejoin the society as they enjoy the freedom, albeit precarious, of their lifestyle and regard social life as constrained; there are others who really want to resume their studies and go back to their homes. We think, there are opportunities to reintegrate these street children with their families and society.
Dr. Govind P. Thapa
President, CSJS
Monday, April 14, 2008
The Constituent Assembly Election 2008
14 Apr 2008
The long awaited Constituent Assembly election was held on 10 April 2008. The relatively peaceful manner and high turnout (more than 65%) in which this election was held was quite a surprise for me and many others amidst clouds of expectations for violence. Then, the first figures of poll results were even more surprising and unexpected. The major political parties—Nepali Congress and United Marxist Leninist (UML)—received heavy blows. Their heavyweights were flattened one-after-another. So far, the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) has bagged more than fifty percent of announced seats—102 out of 185. There are still results of 138 seats yet to be announced. Now there is a big speculation over the reasons/factors for such a landslide victory. Some of them are:
Vote rigging—but the national/international observers gave a clean report
Fear psychology—the voters did not find any other alternatives to protect themselves in the event of attack and violence by Maoists after the election—it is assumed that they were threatened earlier for dire consequences
Election manifesto/program—more appealing to the voters
Longing for peace—the voters were afraid that if the Maoists were defeated in the election they would go back to the jungle
Longing for change—voters were just looking for overall changes and they felt that only Maoists could bring the change, therefore, they discarded the "veterans"
It is still too early to say definitely about the reasons/factors. Whatever they may be, one truth is very clear—WE WERE VERY FAR AWAY FROM THE GROUND REALITY. Therefore, the results are unexpected and surprising.
The long awaited Constituent Assembly election was held on 10 April 2008. The relatively peaceful manner and high turnout (more than 65%) in which this election was held was quite a surprise for me and many others amidst clouds of expectations for violence. Then, the first figures of poll results were even more surprising and unexpected. The major political parties—Nepali Congress and United Marxist Leninist (UML)—received heavy blows. Their heavyweights were flattened one-after-another. So far, the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) has bagged more than fifty percent of announced seats—102 out of 185. There are still results of 138 seats yet to be announced. Now there is a big speculation over the reasons/factors for such a landslide victory. Some of them are:
Vote rigging—but the national/international observers gave a clean report
Fear psychology—the voters did not find any other alternatives to protect themselves in the event of attack and violence by Maoists after the election—it is assumed that they were threatened earlier for dire consequences
Election manifesto/program—more appealing to the voters
Longing for peace—the voters were afraid that if the Maoists were defeated in the election they would go back to the jungle
Longing for change—voters were just looking for overall changes and they felt that only Maoists could bring the change, therefore, they discarded the "veterans"
It is still too early to say definitely about the reasons/factors. Whatever they may be, one truth is very clear—WE WERE VERY FAR AWAY FROM THE GROUND REALITY. Therefore, the results are unexpected and surprising.
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