11 February 2013. Marking the organization’s 12th anniversary, Advocacy Forum (AF) Nepal organised its annual general meeting on 9 February on the AF central office premises. Human rights defenders from different organizations attended the program and lauded AF for fearlessly carrying out substantive actions to uphold human rights in the country.
At the beginning of the program, AF Chairperson Mandira Sharma felicitated some human rights defenders and victims. Dr. Haribansh Tripathi, AF director, highlighted the works done by AF and pointed out the need of collaborative efforts from everyone to push the agenda of human rights into the forefront. Dinmani Pokhrel, Tikaram Bhattarai, Ganesh BK, Gobinda Bandi, Gopalkrishna Shiwakoti, Ekraj Bhandari, Charan Prasain, Subodhraj Pyakurel, Harikrishna Karki and Sushil Pyakurel conveyed their good wishes to AF for continuing working for rule of law and campaigning against impunity. They also said that the country is going through a difficult transitional phase and there are many challenges ahead for human rights community. These challenges can be met head on through unified work of human rights defenders, they opined.
AF Chairperson Mandira Sharma expressed her worries that despite continuous advocacy for justice to victims, successive governments have promoted alleged perpetrators while victims have to hide in fear. “Human rights activists have even been enlisted as people to be extra-judicially executed but we will continue with our fight for justice,” she said. She also had it that the government should make victims feel that they would get justice in Nepal.
