25 June 2011. A report released by Advocacy Forum on the eve of the UN International Day in Support of Torture Victims -2011 has exposed the failure of the government of Nepal to prevent and protect women from being tortured in detentions, and provide adequate redress to them.
The report was released by Minister of Women, Children and Social Welfare Khadga Bahadur Bishwokarma amidst a program jointly hosted by AF and National Women Commission (NWC).
The report titled “Torture of Women in Detention : Nepal’s Failure to Prevent and Protect” attributes the lack of criminalization of torture, the widespread impunity and the obstacles in accessing justice for women victims of human rights violations to a threat to women’s well-being and security. The aim of this report is to call on the Government of Nepal to exercise due diligence to prevent, investigate and punish acts of torture against women in detention and work towards improving the conditions of detention for women.
AF has been monitoring the status of torture in government detention facilities since 2001. AF statistics shows that there has been a gradual decline in torture in past few years. However, the trend of torture in detention still continues.
During 2010, on average an estimated one in ten women detained by police was reported to have been subjected to torture or ill-treatment in 67 government detention facilities regularly visited by AF attorneys in 20 districts in which it operates.
There is however a sharp increase of nearly 90 per cent when comparing the first half of the year with the latter. Between July and December 2010,, 13.9% of women reported they were tortured or subjected to ill-treatment (compared to 7% in the first half of the year).
