I. Project Name
Examine the harassment faced by Women Human Rights Defenders (WHRDs) in the Eastern region of Nepal and provide recommendations to stakeholders to address the issue.
II. Project Leads and Core Members
Project Team Members
Name
Current Position
Organisation
Contact Details:
Role in Project Team
Maria Tanyag
Unit Coordinator
Monash University
maria.tanyag@monash.edu
Research Supervisor
Andi Azka Faurianthi Poetri
Research Fellow, MIDP
Monash University
apoe0001@student.monash.edu
Data Entrant/Analyst
Karinda Flavell
Research Fellow, MIDP
Monash University
kfla2@student.monash.edu
Report Writer
Matthew Robert Cox
Research Fellow, MIDP
Monash University
mrcox1@student.monash.edu
Survey Designer and Implementer
Rowena Veloso
Research Fellow, MIDP
Monash University
rvel0002@student.monash.edu
Field Enumerator
Sara Neupane
Research Fellow, MIDP
Monash University
sneu0002@student.monash.edu
Coordinator/Translator
External advisors and facilitators
Name
Current Position
Organisation
Contact Details:
Phone and Email
Role in Project
Bijay Raj Gautam
Executive Director
Informal Sector Service Center (INSEC)
9851058455
bijaya@insec.org.np
Advisor, facilitator
Dr. Renu Adhikari
Chairperson
Women Rehabilitation Center (WOREC)
5006373
ics@worecnepal.org
Advisor, facilitator
Meena Bista
Manager
Jagaran Nepal
9851096143
meena@jagarannepal.org.np
Advisor, facilitator
III. Summary of aims, objectives and outcomes
The aim of this project is to contribute to a safer environment for WHRDs in the Eastern region of Nepal by giving voice to WHRDs’ issues.
The objectives of this project are to:
• examine the harassment experience of WHRDs and their encounters with current protection mechanisms
• contribute to current academic knowledge regarding WHRDs
• identify potential pursuable improvements in the protection mechanisms for WHRDs by Non-governmental Organisations (NGOs), Government of Nepal and other involved actors
The research will generate valuable knowledge that will draw the attention of the United Nations (UN), government agencies, regional and international and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) working in the field of human rights in Nepal to explore the gaps and take necessary action to provide effective protection mechanisms for WHRDs at risk.
Key outcomes will include:
• A good knowledge document which will depict the situation of WHRDs in Nepal and the harassment they face
• Increase awareness through publicising the results to government, regional and international non-government agencies and the UN in order that they may contribute to an enabling environment for WHRDs in Nepal
• Develop a set of recommendations for NGOs, government and UN to create a safer environment with more effective protection mechanisms for WHRDs in Nepal
The following question will be addressed in the project:
What is the experience of WHRDs of harassment and their encounters with current protection mechanisms in the three districts of Eastern Nepal?
IV. Time Frame and Locations
1 April 2017 – 30 October 2018 in Melbourne and three districts Sunsari, Saptari and Siraha of Eastern region of Nepal
Activities
Time Frame
Location
Key person
Research proposal approval
April 2017 – May 2017
Melbourne
Andi Azka F Poetri
In-depth literature review
May 2017 – June 2017
Melbourne
Karinda Flavell
Design survey and ethics clearance
June 2017 – July 2017
Melbourne
Matthew Robert Cox
Organise location and dates with facilitator agencies
July 2017 – August 2017
Nepal and Melbourne
Matthew Robert Cox
Preliminary survey on site and hiring of translator
August – September 2017
Nepal
Rowena Veloso
Fieldwork and data collection:
Survey, Focus Group Discussion, Interviews
September 2017 – March 2018
Nepal
Sara Neupane, Rowena Veloso
Data analysis
March – June 2018
Melbourne
Andi Azka F Poetri
Report write-up
June 2018 – July 2018
Melbourne
Karinda Flavell
Presentation of findings and recommendations
August – October 2018
Nepal and Melbourne
Research Team
V. Rationale for Project
Human rights and Human Rights Defenders (HRDs)
Whilst women have fought injustice for centuries, both ‘human rights’ and ‘human rights defenders’ are relatively recent concepts. In 1948, a newly formed United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) passed a Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) which signaled the birth of human rights law. The declaration includes both civil and political rights (e.g. right to a fair trial) and economic, social and cultural rights (e.g. right to an adequate standard of living). It was followed by two covenants that detail the rights as legal obligations for states (Nepal is a signatory to both). A plethora of human rights treaties, laws and regimes at the UN, regional and national levels have since developed, including over 20 international treaties to improve the treatment of women. The most important treaty in regards to women is the Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) which requires states to eliminate discrimination against women, address social and cultural barriers to equality, act on socio-economic issues of relevance and protect the rights of women within a marriage and family (McBeth, Nolan & Rice, 2011). In addition to providing a legal framework for women to pursue equality, human rights have become an important public discourse. This provides an opportunity for women seeking to speak out about a range of injustices to do so within a discourse that currently has “legitimacy’’ and therefore is a valuable political tool for women (Steans, 2007). Therefore, whilst there may be other ways to understand harassment of women activists, using a human rights approach means this issue-based research is more likely to have impact when presented to the government, NGOs and the UN.
It is argued that human rights are “fundamental, universal and integral to the dignity and worth of the human person’’ and transcend history, culture and religion. However, human rights law reflects a convergence of two Western political traditions; liberalism and socialism (McBeth, Nolan & Rice, 2011). The ‘universality’ of human rights has been challenged by cultural relativists who argue there is no single moral standard; moral philosophies are cultural (Qureshi, 2012). This includes both legitimate arguments and those seeking to justify abuses of rights (Steans, 2007). These are important considerations when planning a human rights related project in Nepal from Australia. However, Steans (2007) argues that whilst these debates are important, they should not curtail action but should change the way human rights are engaged with internationally, advocating sensitivity, listening, dialogue and recognition that local contexts may require different strategies.
Fifty years after the birth of human rights law the term ‘human rights defender’ was coined, though not defined, when a UN Convention on defenders was passed (as discussed further later). Since then the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (UN OHCHR, 2004) has defined defenders as “people who, individually or with others, act to promote or protect human rights” including state and non-state actors, professionals and volunteers where a “special effort” is made to support human rights (i.e. an entertainer who highlights injustices, an organiser of a demonstration). The action must be in relation to human rights, be peaceful, and the defender must “accept the universality of human rights” (UN OHCHR, 2004). The last two of these requirements are contested in the literature (Nah et al., 2013) and the definition has been critiqued for including state actors, being ambiguous and not providing sufficient guidance (Bennett et al., 2015). In practice a broad definition is usually applied, including “anyone who carries out peaceful activities in the defense of human rights” (Nah et al., 2013), including people who may not refer to themselves as HRDs. As the term is often used to describe those at risk of adverse action this broader approach provides better protection and recognition for those who speak out so will be used in this project. WHRDs include women that defend any human rights, including but not limited to, women’s rights (Bennett et al., 2015).
Harassment of HRDs
There are countless WHRDs around the world who risk their lives to defend human rights. Men and women in many countries work relentlessly to ensure that freedom and human rights are protected. These defenders often face violence, attacks and threats in response to their work and what they are fighting for.
The UN Special Rapporteur on The Situation of Human Rights Defenders (2010) developed a report that exclusively focused on WHRDs and the real issues they are facing. The report stated that WHRDs are more at risk of violation than men who are working in the same area. The Special Rapporteur also found that “stereotypes about femininity, sexual orientation and the role and status of women in society” are the basic reasons why WHRDs tend to receive more harassment whilst doing their duties compared to male HRDs.
The report shows that human rights violations of WHRDs in Iran, China, Nepal, Pakistan, Bahrain, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia and United Arab Emirates were largely about discrimination in the administration of justice by the state officials. In addition, some of the life threats received by WHRDs are from armed people that were not government officials. In America and Iraq, WHRDs mostly reported physical harassment and even assassination. WHRDs in the Central African Republic and the Republic of the Congo predominantly faced risks such as death threats, sexual harassment and rape.
This UN report identified the types of risks and violations into four categories which are death threats, criminalization, stigmatization and sexual violence. This research will also focus on those four types of harassment, as defined in the UN report.
With regards to death threats, the WHRDs were harassed via electronic communication tools like phone, email and text message. These incidents not only affected the psychological condition of the defenders, but also that of their families who also received similar threats. The report also raised concerns about imprisonment and criminalization of defenders’ work such as “criminal investigations, charges, trials, and sentences varying from fines to administrative detentions to lengthy prison terms.” Whilst in prison, some WHRDs were physically abused and attacked. The police officials were involved in these acts of mistreatment towards WHRDs in the prison. Stigmatization was another problem faced by the women defenders. In addition to stereotyping the role of women and their status in social life, the government and other non-state actors accuse and blame the defenders for bringing “Western” culture that might take over the native culture and values. Lastly, WHRDs also faced the risk of sexual violation and rape. In most of the cases, the actors of the sexual harassments remained unidentified.
The current international protection mechanisms for HRDs
To deal with various issues including the safety and protection of HRDs, the UNGA adopted ‘The UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders’ in 1998. This document created international standards on the protection of HRDs (Bennett et al., 2015). Apart from recognizing the rights of the defenders to pursue their objectives accordingly, the Declaration also contains how the different countries in the UNGA are mandated and compelled to uphold these rights. Unlike a treaty, this Declaration does not make the countries legally liable but is nonetheless powerful as the rights benchmark on other legally binding frameworks already in existence such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights and CEDAW.
Although HRDs are under the jurisdiction of their local laws, the Declaration provides that these national laws should not be in contradiction to the concepts of human rights and liberty, as stipulated in the United Nations’ Charter. WHRDs are not explicitly mentioned in the Declaration but are within its scope as it includes those who in their line of work, exhibit peace and respect for others’ rights in the community (Perry, 2007).
In order to protect the rights of HRDs, several multi-level regimes in the global, regional and local contexts have been put in place. At the international arena, in year 2000, a Special Representative on Human Rights Defenders (and later Special Rapporteur) was appointed by the Commission on Human Rights to check how the Declaration has been implemented (Nah, Bennett, Ingleton & Savage, 2013). Two years after, the Special Representative in the person of Hina Jilani, pointed out in her report how WHRDs can be subjected to abuses, such as those sexual in nature, which are particular to “gender, sexuality, or gender identity” (Soohoo & Hortsch, 2010). The member countries of the Group of Eight also sought to better safeguard the rights of WHRDs through its Declaration on Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict (Bennett et al., 2015).
Regionally, a guide was released by the European Union (EU) on how its member countries can contribute in the security of HRDs worldwide. However, due to several challenges, these guidelines were not fully maximized. In Africa, a Special Rapporteur on HRDs was appointed. Latin America, through the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights also set-up an office which will monitor the status of HRDs. At a national level, there are countries that have provided mechanisms addressing abuses on HRDs. However, for a framework to truly serve its purpose, it should be inclusive of the inputs from the society itself, and should also secure the support of authorities from the local area (Nah et al., 2013). Moreover, even with all the improvements in the protection mechanisms, there are still countries where supposedly there are human rights laws in place, and yet where HRDs are still very susceptible to abuses. Those in authority defend the policies and the ill-treatment of HRDs through invoking the concepts of greater national interest, development, safety, anti-terrorism and to a certain extent, citing traditions and societal norms (Bennett et al., 2015).
A feminist approach to security for WHRDs
As noted earlier, even where human rights laws are in place, many WHRDs face challenges accessing legal remedies and protection from authorities, who in some cases may be the perpetrators of violence or verbal harassment (Amir, 2013). Regardless, these measures, even if effective, only address a narrow concept of security that some feminists are challenging. Drawing from a feminist human security framework, the women advocate for a more holistic approach to understanding and addressing risks for WHRDs (Bennett et al., 2015). Barry and Nainar (2008) interviewed WHRDs to develop a broader concept of ‘integrated security’ which was later developed into a manual for WHRDs (Barry, 2011). Integrated security moves away from a traditional militaristic notion and instead includes freedom from threats, economic security, health security etc (Barry & Nainar, 2008). They found that to obtain security WHRDs seek the right not only to be able to conduct their work without restriction, work in safe spaces and travel without fear, but also to stay healthy, happy and take care of themselves and their families (Barry, 2011).
The integrated security manual also outlines strategies that WHRDs use to reduce risks and manage their security that fall outside of legal and policing options including building allies, bluffing, using symbolism where expression is silenced, dealing with stress and protecting their health (Barry, 2011). Therefore, when researching harassment of WHRDs in the Eastern region of Nepal, the project will take a broad approach to defining protection mechanisms for reducing harassment, not limited to the legal mechanisms but also including any strategies that may be adopted by any state and non-state actors.
Current international research
In 2016, the organisation Human Rights Watch (HRW) published its research into the suppression of WHRDs in Sudan. The research project, ‘Good girls don’t protest’, involved interviews with over 85 female activists in urban areas of Sudan. All the female activists interviewed in this study reported having experienced gender-based violence due to their role in activism. This violence included rape, threats of rape, assault, and attacks on reputation. The interviewees told their experiences of how plainclothes police would arrest activists, beat them, rape them, and then threaten how their honour would suffer if they pressed charges. The women were left traumatised and HRW found that none were able to successfully press charges against their assailants (Henry, 2016).
Research completed by the WHRDs at Nazra for feminist studies found that in Egypt, male and female activists were subjected to arbitrary arrest, torture, and detention. On top of that, females were also abject to gender based crimes including stigmatization, sexual assault, and rape (Amir, 2013).
These are examples of valuable information about violations against WHRDs from organisations working in the field. However, there is a dearth of international academic literature (Nah et al., 2013) and this project aims to begin to address this.
The current situation of human rights and WHRDs in Nepal
Nepal, a developing nation in South Asia is home to approximately 27 million people, with women constituting more than half of the total population. A country once proposed as a ‘Zone of Peace’ went through political upheavals following the decade long armed conflict (from 1996-2006) between the Nepalese government and the Communist Party of Nepal (CPN-Maoist) which resulted in an increase in human rights abuses throughout the country in the form of torture, unlawful killings, arbitrary arrests and abductions.
Nepal has ratified more than 30 international human rights instruments (Upreti, Shrestha & Giri, 2013). Despite being signatory to many treaties and conventions, the situation of human rights is not satisfactory in Nepal. There were 4502 incidents of human rights violations and atrocities in the year 2016 in Nepal (INSEC, 2017). The situation is even more difficult for the HRDs who face numerous challenges at work. HRDs are mainly classified into seven occupations namely health workers, human rights activists, journalists, law professionals, social workers and teachers in Nepal (INSEC, 2017).
In 2016, a total of 62 HRDs were victimized by the state and non-state in Nepal and among them, six were female whereas 56 were male HRDs. The most common types of human rights violations of HRDs include arrest, beatings, inhuman behaviour, injury, racial discrimination, right to assembly, threats and tortures. As per data, majority of the HRDs i.e. 25 were victims of beatings followed by the right to assembly, threats and inhuman behaviour (INSEC, 2017). As per the Nepal Human Rights Year Book 2017 published by INSEC, the Eastern region of Nepal faces numerous challenges considering factors like gravity and increasing trend of human rights violations and violence against women along with poor capacity of HRDs especially WHRDs and very less NGOs working for the protection and promotion of HRDs.
Among HRDs, the condition of WHRDs is even more appalling because they face double threats as a woman and an HRD (APWLD, 2007). According to the World Economic Forum, Nepal ranks 110 in Global Gender Index which means it has to do more to close the gender gap. The deeply rooted patriarchal system in Nepalese society is one such feature that results in their increased oppression. WHRDs, who work to protect the rights of others themselves are at risk and have been targets of threats and harassment in their work, torture, beatings, arbitrary arrest and detention, death threats, defamation as well as restrictions on their freedoms of movement, expression, association and assembly. From 2009-2011, WOREC Nepal documented 105 cases of WHRD’s rights violations committed by state and non-state actors which included rape, murder and threats (ALRC, 2011).
Protection mechanism for W/HRDs in Nepal
Even after a decade of ceasefire, the HRDs especially WHRDs in Nepal continue to live in threat and there has been no satisfactory change in their conditions. To date, no separate protection mechanisms and more specifically, no laws for the protection of human rights defenders exist in Nepal. In 2009, draft legislation on HRDs based on the UN Declaration was brought forward by the INSEC which included the definition of defenders, activities, duty and rights of the defenders as well as the duty of state to protect the defenders.
Similarly, following the pressure from national human rights NGOs, Human Rights Defender Directives 2013 was formulated to protect and promote HRDs in Nepal. Another effort made to support HRDs is the EU Working Group on HRDs which commits to undertake several activities such as broadening contacts with HRDs across Nepal, developing HRD networks and linkages to reduce the vulnerability of HRDs, and directly raising individual cases or issues hindering the work of HRDs (INSEC, 2013).
However, these mechanisms are not enough to address the challenges HRDs, especially the ones WHRDs face. The limited research and data on WHRDs pose a challenge for both state and non-state actors to intervene in this issue and to establish a stronger protection mechanism urgently.
Conclusion
It is vital that WHRDs can be active in their work without facing harassment. There is limited academic literature on the kinds of harassment faced by WHRDs so this project hopes to consider what kinds of violations these WHRDs face, such as sexual and misogynistic crimes. This project aims to further the academic understanding of why these violations are occurring and who the perpetrators are in the Eastern region of Nepal. Through research, the paper also strives to see why the existing protection mechanisms were unable to protect, or seek justice for victims. The project aims to create academic work around harassment of WHRDs in Nepal and produce recommendations that can be undertaken by involved parties such as the Government of Nepal and relevant NGOs in Nepal.
VI. Research Question(s)
What is the experience of WHRDs of harassment and their encounters with current protection mechanisms in three districts of Eastern Nepal?
Subsidiary questions
• What kind of harassment is experienced by WHRDs in Nepal?
This question aims to understand the extent and type of harassments that exist in Nepal
toward WHRDs.
• What are the underlying causes of harassment of WHRDs in Nepal?
This question seeks to understand the legal, cultural, and political reasons that create hostile activities towards WHRDs.
• Are current strategies for protection in Nepal enforced effectively?
This question aspires to understand the effort and protection mechanism that have been implemented and whether they are working properly in protecting the WHRDs in Nepal.
• How could harassment prevention be made more effective?
The purpose of this question is to use the findings to provide recommendations to the involved actors on how to better protect WHRDs from harassment.
VII. Key Anticipated Outcomes/ Use of Research Findings
This project aims to create academic literature on the harassment faced by WHRDs in Nepal. The field research will create qualitative and quantitative evidence on the issue to encourage the Government of Nepal and NGOs to put in place systems to better protect WHRDs. In the study, the researchers hope to understand what causes harassment of WHRDs, how it can be prevented and why WHRDs are not adequately protected by legal and/or other mechanisms. Information will be gathered through field work then data analysis to produce academic literature aimed to advise relevant parties such as the Government of Nepal and NGOs on how to better protect WHRDs.