CCPR/C/119/D/2185/2012
1968, respectively. They claim that the State party has violated Rajendra Dhakal’s rights
under articles 6, 7, 9, 10 and 16, separately and read in conjunction with article 2 (3) of the
Covenant; Bimala and Rabindra Dhakal’s rights under article 7, read alone and in
conjunction with article 2 (3); and Manjima Dhakal’s rights under article 7, read in
conjunction with articles 2 (3) and 24 (1) of the Covenant. The Covenant and its Optional
Protocol entered into force for the State party on 14 August 1991. The authors are
represented by counsel.
The facts as submitted by the authors
2.1
As a result of the armed conflict that started in 1996 in the State party between the
Government and the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), there was a marked deterioration
in the human rights situation in the country. All parties to the conflict, including the police
and the Royal Nepalese Army, committed atrocities, and enforced disappearances became a
widespread phenomenon.1 Reliable sources indicate that there was a large number of cases
of enforced disappearances in Nepal in 2003 and 2004.2 The victims were mainly Maoist
sympathizers or supporters, many of whom were students, businessmen, farmers,
journalists and human rights defenders. 3
2.2
Rajendra Dhakal and the first author (Bimala Dhakal) have three children. Rajendra
Dhakal was a human rights defender and a member of the Nepal Bar Association. He
worked in a law firm called Progressive Legal Services Centre and was Chair of the Gorkha
district branch of the Forum for the Protection of Human Rights. He was also district
secretary of the United People’s Front, an umbrella organization of various Communist
groups, until 1995. He resigned from that post when the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist)
started the armed conflict in February 1996. Between March and June 1996, he was
illegally detained by the Nepalese police and released by order of a district court in June
1996. During his detention he was ill-treated, tortured and was permitted almost no contact
with the outside world. In June 1998, in the framework of a homicide and robbery case in
Tanahun District Court, he was charged of attacking police personnel, carrying explosives,
opening fire indiscriminately and killing a police deputy inspector. A warrant and summons
were issued against him. At that time, Rajendra Dhakal was actively working as a lawyer in
cases of torture and harassment by State agents. After the issuance of the arrest warrant
against him, he began receiving death threats from the security forces. As a result, in
August 1998 he ended his legal career and went into hiding.
2.3
On 8 January 1999, Rajendra Dhakal was attending a closed-door political
awareness programme at Jamdi village, Khairenitar, in Tanahun District. As he approached
the stream in Jamdi, he was arrested by the police. Two other persons, P.B.T and N.D.A.,
primary school teachers, were also arrested and taken to Bel Chautara Area Police Office.
However, they were separated from Rajendra Dhakal, who was put in solitary confinement.
That was the last time he was seen. After two days, the teachers were released.
2.4
In the following days, the first author, who had last seen her husband one month
earlier in Chitwan, heard rumours about Rajendra Dhakal’s arrest. At her request, the
second author (Rabindra Dhakal) started searching for his brother. Between 12 and 19
January 1999, the second author visited the District Police Office in Tanahun, the District
Police Office in Nawalparasi, the District Police Office in Kaski, Pokhara, and the Armed
Police Battalion, Pokhara. The officers in charge in all those places informed him that his
brother had been transferred to another police post. At the Armed Police Battalion, Pokhara,
he was informed that Rajendra Dhakal had been transferred to the District Police Office in
Gorkha. The second author visited the Gorkha office, where he was informed that Rajendra
Dhakal was indeed there, but he was not allowed to visit him. A few weeks later, the
1
2
3
2
The authors refer to the report of the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances on
its mission to Nepal (E/CN.4/2005/65/Add.1), and the report of the Special Rapporteur on torture and
other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment on his mission to Nepal
(E/CN.4/2006/6/Add.5).
The authors refer to Human Rights Watch and Advocacy Forum, Waiting for Justice: Unpunished
Crimes from Nepal’s Armed Conflict (New York, Human Rights Watch, 2008), p. 11.
See E/CN.4/2005/65/Add.1.