K. Sarup: Are Human Rights And Peace Connected?

Now this is the globalize world and world community is deeply inter-connected and interdependent with each other in many respect therefore, conflict in one country should be considered a threat for peace in everywhere. Nepal is passing through extremely difficult time of its history. Years of conflict devastated, paralyzed and crippled the nation, killed more than fourteen thousand people and displaced huge number of people from their habitual place of residence. Although they are not consider "refugee" under the narrow technical definition of UN refugee convention1951, which has, became outdated in contemporary global context. In fact refugee convention is too euro-centric and does not match with present day world reality. And International community also not properly acknowledged phenomena of huge and alarming number of internally displaced people of Nepal.

"Nepal is a kind of neglected and forgotten country in international arena and international community is not paying much attention toward painful condition of Nepal. No doubt years of conflict brought untold suffering for the people of Nepal. Because of the violence, Nepal is facing human rights crisis in the contemporary world." Dinesh Tripathi, a well-known human rights lawyer from Nepal, has worked as a Human Rights attorney for the Nepal Supreme Court for fifteen years said recently. Tripathi has made arduous efforts to highlight major facets of Nepalese human rights and peace issues. He writes in depth and on many simultaneous levels.

Tripathi further added " Nepal needs urgent and immediate International attention. World body like United Nations can play a very important and constructive role in establishment of democratic peace in Nepal because world body is equipped with a means, resource and expertise in this regard. This is the high time that UN should engage constructively to peace building process in Nepal and use its resource, expertise and influence to facilitation of peace process in Nepal. And at the same time International civil society has also a bigger role to play in this context because international civil society is also emerged as a major actor in shaping of international policy agenda. World body and International civil society facilitate the negotiation process and exert pressure to both sides to abide by International humanitarian and human rights law and norms".Dinesh Tripathi also argued and appear before apex court on various land mark cases of national importance in Nepal. Wrote a books on human rights and several article presented several paper at various national and international forum.

"There is massive violation of International humanitarian law from both side and innocent killing; disappearances, torture and abduction have become daily routine in the country. This process has to be stopped immediately and culture of impunity must not be allowed to continue. In addition to that violation of human rights must be closely monitor by International community and urgent and immediate measure should to be taken to stop the violation of human rights and humanitarian law.

Democratic peace is the need of the hour for the country like Nepal. Peace cannot exist or secure without full guarantee of human rights, democracy and rule of law and at the same time social justice and equity is also a pre-condition of genuine peace. And it is self-evident truth that peace cannot survive amidst vast social and economic inequality, exclusion and marginalization. For the establishment of the genuine and lasting peace root cause of conflict has to be addressed. No doubt that just and equitable socio-economic order is pre condition of it.

Peace cannot just happen by itself automatically but it need a concerted and collective action on the part of stakeholder to build and create peace. Since peace does not means only absence of war or military conflict but it provides a space for realization of fundamental rights and liberty for people. Without Peace there could be no guarantee of well being, prosperity and happiness of people and without democracy and human rights no genuine peace is possible". Tripathi said. Dinesh Tripathi also a great promoter of conflict resolutions issues. He has been continuously writing articles and several of his writings draw attention to the Nepal's issues.

Peace requires a restructuring of social order and existing power structure, which is unjust, inequitable and undemocratic. Peace requires socio-economic and political justice. It provides a space for people to genuine participation in the governance and Nation building process. For the genuine peace people must have a control over their destiny. Now peace is our prime national agenda. Therefore just ending an armed conflict does not create peace by itself it is a necessary condition of peace but not a sufficient condition of it. It is clear that Country cannot move forward through military means therefore negotiated settlement is the need of the hour. For the restoration of peace broad based dialogue is essentials and civil society must play an active and constructive role.

Peace is too serious to entrust only to handful of politician so people most come forward and take a responsibility in the peace making and peace building process of the country. Without an active and constructive participation and engagement of people at grass root level no peace process can move forward. Peace is most fundamental of the fundamental rights of the people. UN declaration on the right of people to peace 1984 clearly mentions, "The people of our planet have a sacred right to peace." And also proclaimed that" the preservation of the right of peoples to peace and the promotion of the implementation constitute a fundamental obligation of each state. Because without peace people are unable to enjoy their any other rights and freedom.

First of all negotiated settlement is the only way out. We have to agree on the plain and simple fact that there is no military solution of this problem and military solution could not be lasting as well. There must be a strong desire for the peaceful settlement from all stakeholders. Violation of human rights and humanitarian law must be stop immediately. Nepal has already ratified all the four Geneva Convention. Common article 3 of Geneva convention is related with internal armed conflict so both state actor and non-state actor must be abide by it.

Geneva convention has become the part of customary International law. Violation of Geneva Convention considered war crime and crime against humanity and perpetrator and violator must be held accountable for their action. And at same time rebel group most come forward for negotiated settlement". Tripathi further argued. He has made extensive contributions by doing research on social studies, culture, language and literature. He has lectured students on various educational, linguistic and cultural themes.

Political parties, media, civil society and the government must play a chief role. And also political parties are the major player in the democratic polity. Any effort to undermine a political party would be counterproductive and disrupt the peace process. Peace process must be carefully and efficiently managed. People are the main stakeholder in this process Participation of Civil society and media must be ensured. Peace Process must be open and transparent.

There must be a broader agreement of goal and objective among the concerned parties, such as guarantee of people's sovereignty, basic human rights, multiparty democracy, independence of judiciary and rule of law. Likewise freedom of speech and press, right to association, right to life, right to equality is the basic rights of people, which are non-negotiable rights. Human rights issue must be at the top of the agenda of any peace process". Tripathi said. He has done LL.M in constitutional law, widely recognize as constitutional expert,human rights and public interest lawyer Tripathi argued. He had also participated in the democratic struggle and jailed many times. He has spoken on Human Rights concerns in Nepal at national conferences (including the recent National Lawyer's Guild conference in Oregon.

On the other hand, with the destruction of school buildings children are badly affected. There are growing reports of an increase in the number of child Maoists soldiers. Thousands of children have lost their parents. Maoists force the children from grade six to 10 and their teachers to go with them. And also, they are forced to flee because of Maoists terrorism. Children are very scared. Nepali rural schools have been turned into recruitment centres. The misuse of schools, their occupation and attacks on them are one of the worst violations of women and children's rights's in Nepal.

It is also true, the exploitation of children in the ranks of the Maoists must end. UN must work hard to end the use of Nepali children, the killing and maiming of children,and abductions. Violent terrorism disrupts lives and reduces people's access to basic services. Political stability is essential to effectively implement peace related programs in Nepal. Nepal should work closely with humanitarian organisations, and build capacity so that communities will be less vulnerable to future crises.

Violence, made Nepalese people more frustrated. We should not forget how to achieve economic sustainability. I believe, attainment of sustainable peace, security and economic prosperity, which largely depends on the resolution of the current political impasse, requires consensus and commitment among all political parties and the government. Nepal and Nepalese need political stability, development, peace, and true democracy. We do not want violence, terrorism.

(Kamala Sarup is an editor of http://peacejournalism.com)

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