Kathmandu, June 26: A study has revealed that the torture practices in the last 11 years are on a gradual decline in Nepal, but still continuing in lesser scale.
On the occasion of the International Day in support of Torture Victims, Advocacy Forum Nepal, which has been on a constant monitoring of the prisons for the last 15 years, made public a study disclosing that the incidents of torture in prisons recorded at 16.7 per cent in 2013 had come down by 0.5 per cent in 2014.
Forum Chairman Chudamani Acharya said the incidents of torture and harassment recorded at 18.1 in 2013 had rose to 26.7 per cent in Kathmandu while an increase in such trend was recorded in Jhapa and Banke.
The legal practitioners with the Advocacy Forum had visited the police run custody centres and prisons in 13 districts during which 916 inmates were interviewed. Of the total interviewees, 311 persons said they were tortured and subjected to inhumane and disgraceful behavior. This data is the lowest in the last 15 years.
The latest data shows that the trend of torture in Nepal has gradually declined in the last 11 years. Since 2001, torture practices declined at the rate of 2.5 per cent every year, said Dr Trilochan Upreti, Forum’s Executive Director.
“There has been a decline in torture trend in the post-conflict years in Nepal,” he said adding, “But still 16.2 per cent of the inmates have complained of torture and harassment which indicates a serious scenario.”
Upreti shared the need for a creative participation of the national and international human rights organizations for reforms in the police institution, reforms on the principle level for enforcing the international criteria for containing the incident of torture and continued training to the concerned involved in criminal judiciary and programmes for sensitizing the concerned.
The report is believed to tip the process forward on adaptation of a bill on criminalizing torture, which has been pending in the parliament. The study has further revealed a shocking fact that of the total tortured the number of 18 years old and children below that age is highest among which 24.1 per cent children have claimed they were still being subjected to torture and harassment.
The incidents of physical torture with the use of pipes and sticks continue unabated, the study revealed. RSS
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