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Bhutan rights record under world scrutiny
SWANSEA, UK, DEC 11 - Bhutan told the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) that some of the measures it has taken are in the interest of its self-preservation. In a draft report of the review prepared by the council’s working group on Universal Periodic Review (UPR), Bhutan broadly defends its treatment of ethnic minorities stating that it faces a “demographic inundation” from economic migrants who are attracted by its socioeconomic success.
Though Bhutan says it is committed to resuming bilateral process with Nepal to resolve the refugee crisis, it would not specify a time table. The Bhutanese delegation responded to a series of questions on its human rights record in Geneva from 47 member countries of the HRC’s working group on the UPR on Dec. 4.
Bhutan told the international community that while it recognises the refugee situation as a “complex humanitarian problem,” it also faces the threat of destabilisation from the ‘extremists’ operating out of the ‘camps’ in Nepal.
The council adopted Bhutan’s rights report with a series of recommendations on Dec. 8, which calls on the nation to resume bilateral process with Nepal, stop discriminating its people on the basis of ethnicity, and allow the repatriation of some refugees immediately.
Though the recommendations will not be binding, it sets a benchmark to be followed up in four years when the rights records are reviewed again under the Universal Periodic UPR mechanism of the HRC.
Nepal’s Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva Dinesh Bhattarai and other diplomats from over a dozen countries pressed Bhutan for an answer, but found lack of response to the specific questions frustrating. The Bhutanese delegation evaded most questions that touched upon the issue of treatment of refugees and ethnic minorities, Bhattarai told the Post.
In the floor of the Council on Dec. 4, Bhattarai wanted to know from the Bhutanese delegation why it was allowing even those verified jointly by Nepal and Bhutan as Bhutanese citizens to languish in the camps despite its commitment to repatriate them. He further demanded a timeframe for Bhutan’s return to the bilateral process that broke down after the Bhutanese pulled out of it in 2003.
In response, Bhutan’s Ambassador to the UN Yeshey Dorji said, “We stand by our commitment to the bilateral process, and we are hopeful that whenever a conducive environment presents itself we can work with Nepal to resume the bilateral talks.”
Reports have been circulating in both the Bhutanese and refugee media since the meeting between Nepali Prime Minister GP Koirala and his Bhutanese counterpart in August 2008 on the sidelines of SAARC summit in Colombo that the new democratic government of Bhutan is willing to resume the bilateral process.
During the review process, Bhutan’s new democratic government faced its first major grilling in an international forum on its treatment of ethnic minorities, especially on the issue of refugees languishing in camps in Eastern Nepal. All of the refugee recipient countries including the United States, Canada, Norway, Denmark and the Netherlands called on Thimphu to become part of the solution.
Refugees who were in Geneva to register their protest and lobby for support from the international community found the review process beneficial for their cause.
Thimphuspeak
Some measures are aimed at preventing ethnic inundation
The refugees operating out of the camps in Nepal are extremists
Instability in Nepal has hin
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