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OHCHR may get extn
- Will have a reduced mandate
KATHMANDU, MAR 26 -
The Government of Nepal and the High Commis-sioner for Human Rights in Nepal (OHCHR-Nepal) have expressed satisfaction regarding the term extension and mandate of the UN body.
The UN rights body’s current term expires on June 9. Both sides had exchanged draft proposals regarding the term and mandate.
As per the draft proposal, the UN rights body is likely to get a six-month term extension with heavily curtailed mandate.
However, a decision to this effect will be taken by the Cabinet.
The government on Friday
conveyed a message to Richard Bennett, OHCHR-Nepal Chief that the term extension will be for another six months.
Bennett along with his senior Geneva-based official, Rory Mungoven, coordinator, Asia Pacific Unit of OHCHR, held a meeting with Chief Secretary Madhav Ghimire and other senior officials from Prime Minister’s Office.
"About the mandate and term, we had conveyed a message to the Chief of UN Human Rights Council, Navi Pillay during the 13th session of the HR session in Geneva that the government of Nepal was preparing to scale down the mandate heavily and only a six-month extension is possible. However, Pillay had suggested two-year extension,”
said an official who was present at the meeting.
The next Cabinet meeting will take a final call, said the official said.
As per the reduced mandate, OHCHR-Nepal will have a role to empower National Human Rights Commission and will be barred from getting an access on dossiers and archives from legislative, prison and court.
The proposed agreement prepared by the government side also suggested OHCHR-Nepal to prepare a clear exit strategy within its renewed term.
“OHCHR-Nepal has expressed its readiness to stay here with the reduced mandate but has kept mum on its exit strategy,” said the official.
Posted on: 2010-03-27 08:19
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