CCPR/C/114/D/2038/2011
Parmeshwari Tharu (father and mother of Mohan Tharu/Chaudhari); Jaggu Tharu and
Lahiya Tharu (father and aunt of Lauti Tharu/Chaudhari); and Bechaniya Tharu and Manki
Tharu (mother of Chillu Tharu/Chaudhari, and Bechaniya’s husband, respectively), all
Nepalese nationals. They claim that the State party has violated the rights of their eight
relatives (hereinafter “the authors’ relatives”), Nepalese nationals, under articles 6, 7, 9, 10,
16, 23 (1) and 24 (1), alone and in conjunction with article 2 (3), as well as their rights
under articles 7, 17 (1) and 23, read alone and in conjunction with article 2 (3), of the
Covenant. The authors are represented by counsel.
1.2
The authors submit that, at the moment of their disappearance, Dhaniram Tharu was
17 or 18 years old, married and working as a construction worker and subsistence farmer;
Soniram Tharu was 16 or 17 years old and working as a kamaiya1 for a landlord in the
village of Parseni; Radhulal Tharu was 19 years old, married and working as a carpenter
and subsistence farmer; Prem Prakash Tharu was 23 years old, married with an 18-monthold son and working as a farmer and tractor driver; Kamala Tharu was between 16 and 18
years old, a seventh grade student and living with her parents; Mohan Tharu was 18 years
old, a construction worker and farmer, and married and with a son who was nine days old;
Lauti Tharu was between 17 and 20 years old, working as a construction worker and as a
farmer and with living her father and other relatives; and Chillu Tharu was 16 years old and
living in his grandparents’ house.2
The facts as submitted by the authors
2.1
Between 1996 and 2006, an internal armed conflict took place in the State party.
Both parties to the conflict, including the police and the Royal Nepalese Army, committed
atrocities, and enforced disappearances became a widespread phenomenon. 3 Reliable
reports indicate that a high number of enforced disappearances occurred in the Bardiya
District and that members of the Tharu community were particularly targeted by the
authorities.4
2.2
The authors and their eight relatives belong to the Tharu indigenous community,
which constitutes 52 per cent of the population of the Bardiya District. They claim that
historically this community has been discriminated against and marginalized in the State
party, and that a significant number of members of the Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist
in the Bardiya District came from their community.5
2.3
At the time of the events, the authors lived in Nauranga village, Ward No. 8, Manau
Village Development Committee, Bardiya District. The authors claim that, on the night of
11 April 2002, between 60 and 70 Royal Nepalese Army soldiers arrived in the village and
1
2
3
4
5
According to the authors, it refers to persons, including most of the Tharu people, who have a status
of wage labourers. While the kamaiya system was formally abolished in 2000, the working conditions
of former kamaiya families had not changed.
The authors claim that the ages given are indicative and that they are unable to provide an exact age
of their relatives since they did not have citizenship cards or any other type of identity card. They
further note that in rural areas of the State party the concept of time revolves around seasons and
agricultural activities, and that the use of calendars is not common.
See reports of the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (E/CN.4/2004/58,
para. 227, and A/HRC/13/31, annex IV, graph relating to Nepal), as well as the report of the Office of
the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) entitled “Conflict-related
disappearances in Bardiya District” (December 2008), pp. 5 and 27 (available from
http://nepal.ohchr.org).
Ibid., p. 17.
See Human Rights Watch, “Clear culpability: ‘disappearances’ by security forces in Nepal” (28
February 2005), p. 26.
3