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A Voice For the Voiceless

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The Advocacy Project seeks to help community-based advocates produce, disseminate and use information, and so become more effective advocates for human rights and social justice

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UN Statement

Human Rights Council
Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights
Working Group on Minorities
12th Session, 8-11 August 2006

Agenda Item 3a

Thank you Mr. Chairman for giving me this floor to present my issues. I am Pratik Pande from Nepal representing the Jagaran Media Center, a Dalit-based organization of Nepal.

First I would like to give a very brief introduction of the community I represent here. Dalit lie in the lowest strata of feudalistic Nepali society. They are discriminated in the basis of their caste and are considered as ”untouchables”. Dalit Civil Society claims the caste to be around 20 percent of the total population of the country.

Mr. Chairman, I would like to speak here regarding the political representation and effective participation in decision-making of the Dalits during and after the process of restructuring and forming new Nepal.

We welcome the positive step of Government of Nepal, Maoists and also the Civil Society.  All of them have agreed on the election of the Constituent Assembly (CA). The government has also formed an Interim Constitution Drafting Committee (ICDC) June 16 2006, which is supposed to submit a draft interim constitution on  August 9. However, note that there was no representation of Dalit in this committee, in the first phase. After a huge protest as well as pressure, the Nepalese Government agreed to include one Dalit on the drafting committee and was nominated on July 31, before 10 days of their working tenure.

Mr. Chairman, on June 4, 2006, House of Representatives (HoR) declared Nepal as "an untouchability-and-discrimination-free country.” This sounded really good but it was more or less like declaring the polluted Kathmandu City "a pollution-free city ". Mr. Chairman, we yet to see how many lives will be actually changed by just making an announcement.

Article 2.3 of UNDM says that the state should assure that the person belonging to minorities have the right to participate effectively in decisions on the national level. Having seen and analyzing the process of  the state, we fear that the voice of Dalit, this excluded community whose voice was never heard, will not be heard again. Therefore, I would like to make a few recommendations for making new Nepal – "An Inclusive Nepal" where everyone has the right to live life with dignity and without discrimination:

• Affirmative Action: The government should assure the meaningful, proportional and dignified representation of Dalit, Madhesis, indigenous, disables, women and all other minorities before, during and after election of the CA.
• Legal protection: The new forming constitution of Nepal must guarantee equality and special mechanisms for effective monitoring of legal protection.
• End religious intolerance: the state should get rid of the Hindu fundamentalism as a progressive step towards building a new Nepal.
• Political participation: The state should guarantee the Proportional Electoral System to assure proportional representation of Dalit, Madhesis, indigenous, disabled, women and all other minorities.
• Monitoring by civil society: My organization and other minority representatives will continue to monitor all abuses, particularly in villages, where Dalit are most vulnerable.
• Action by the UN and international agencies: We hope that bodies like this will continue to offer us a forum and will put pressure on our government to honor its commitments.

Thank you Mr. Chairman for giving me the floor to present my issues.

Prepared by:
Pratik Pande
Program Manager
Jagaran Media Center (JMC)
Kathmandu, Nepal

E-mail: pratik@jagaranmedia.org.np
Website: www.jagaranmedia.org.np

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