02 July 2020, Kathmandu: In the course of prioritizing the best interest of children amid COVID-19 concerns, on 20 March 2020, 25 March 2020 and 3 April 2020, the full bench of the Supreme Court (SC) issued directives that minors currently detained at correction facilities in different parts of the country to be handed over to their parents or guardians upon request to serve the remainder of their sentence at home. However, district courts are found deciding cases against the very spirit of SC's order. Even in offenses of similar nature, some Courts have released the juveniles whereas some rejected the application for release. More importantly, Judges of district courts have been using their absolute discretionary power to decide cases. These inconsistencies in decisions have already raised discourse in legal community. It also poses an imminent risk in the administration of the justice.

26 June 2020, Kathmandu: In order to commemorate the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture-2020, Advocacy Forum-Nepal (AF) has published a report titled, "Torture in Nepal in 2019-The Need for New Policies and Legal Reform" on torture/ill-treatment of detainees in police custody presenting an analysis of data collected from detainees in police custody and Child Correction Homes (CCHs) in 2019. This year, AF also analysed data on compensation to assess the effectiveness of the laws, policies and practices in place to provide compensation and reparation for victims of torture.

On 23 June 2020, Advocacy Forum-Nepal together with District Transitional Network, Banke submitted a memorandum to Ajay Kumar Shrivastav (Coordinator, District Coordination Committee, Banke), Dirgharaj Upadhyay (Assistant Chief District Officer, District Administration Office, Banke), Uma Thapa Magar (Deputy Chief, Nepalgunj Sub-Metropolitan Office) and Chandrakanta Chapagain (Chief, National Human Rights Commission, Nepalgunj), regarding the concerns of conflict victims during the COVID-19. The Memorandum was also communicated to Baijanath Rural Municipality via an email.

High Court repeals the decision of Banke District Court and orders to take appropriate decision relating to two children kept in Child Correction Home

Tulsipur High Court, Nepalgunj Bench has ordered Banke District to take an appropriate decision relating to a writ of habeas corpus filed by Advocacy Forum on behalf  two children Lakhanwar and Puraina (psudonyms). Taking the decision made by Full Bench of Supreme Court regarding the present Covid-19 situation and the best interests of the children into consideration, High Court has repealed Banke District Court’s decision of not releasing the children on parental custody and further issued an order to take an appropriate decision so that they can be released into parental custody under condition to be presented whenever the Court summons.

On 20 June 2020, Advocacy Forum-Nepal organized a health camp in coordination with Health Page and Bageshwori Television at Jayandu Child Correction Home situated at Duduwa Rural Municipality of Banke district. In the health camp, out of 101 children housed at the Child Correction Home, 73 children received necessary medical treatment. A major health problem was skin diseases spreading easily because of overcrowding in the correction home. A follow-up health camp will also be organized.

Responding to the writ petition filed by a group of lawyers including AF, the High Court Tulsipur, Nepalgunj Bench on 24 May 2020, issued an interim order in the name of District Administration Office, Banke et al. to file the written response within 15 days of the order. The single bench of Hon’ble Justice Rajesh Kumar Kafle directed authorities at local levels of Banke and Bardiya to collect the verified data of labour force, helpless people residing in the respective area and to immediately publish the updated list in the website of the concerned authority.

21 May 2020: Till 21 May 2020, there are 758 quarantine facilities with 26,336 bed capacity in Province 5  of Nepal. Altogether 17,059 people are currently housed in those facilities. However, despite the growing number of people entering to Nepal from India and suspects of corona infection increasing, the Rapid Diagnostic Test (RDT) has been conducted in only 10,532 people. Below is a data  collected by Advocacy Forum-Nepal that gives picture of number of people housed in various quarantine facilities of Province 5.

On 10 May 2020, the members of Human Rights Monitoring Committee, Banke (Advocate Basanta Gautam from Advocacy Forum-Nepal, Bikash Acharya, Chairperson of Nepalgunj High Court Bar Association, Suresh Kumar Gautam, Member of FIAN Nepal, Prahlad Karki from Human Rights Organization of Nepal and Biswajit Tiwari from Human Rights Investigation) visited the Banke Prison. The objective of the visit was to monitor the situation of detainees kept in District Prison, Banke amid fear of COVID-19 spread and to monitor whether the prisoners kept in the prison are provided access to the basic human rights and safety from COVID-19. Likewise, one of the objectives was to make aware to the authorities concerned about the human rights situation of prisoners in the prison. 

On 10 May 2020, team members of Human Rights Monitoring Committee, Banke (Advocate Basanta Gautam from Advocacy Forum-Nepal, Bikash Acharya, Chairperson of Nepalgunj High Court Bar Association, Suresh Kumar Gautam, Member of FIAN Nepal, Prahlad Karki from Human Rights Organization of Nepal and Biswajit Tiwari from Human Rights Investigation) visited the Child Correction Home, Banke. The objective of the visit was to monitor the situation of Child Correction Home amid fear of COVID-19 spread and to monitor whether the juveniles kept in the Child Correction Home are provided access to the basic human rights and safety and security.

6 May 2020, Kathmandu: Duty of state to protect basic human rights of people persists during time of crisis. The current pandemic situation caused by Covid-19 has adversely affected the lives of people all around the globe. Amid this critical situation, the Human Rights Monitoring Committee, Nepalgunj, in which Advocacy Forum-Nepal is also a member, monitored the human rights situation in Banke district and draws attention of the stakeholders concerned during meeting and submitted an attention letter. Likewise, they issued a press statement in order to bring various issues of human rights to the attention of concerned stakeholders.