Caste discrimination against Dalits is systemic and widespread: Amnesty International report
There is an urgent need to take special measures to improve the situation of Dalit women and girls, the organisation says in a new report.
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Published at : May 11, 2024
On July 14, 2016, Ajit Mijar, 18, was found dead in Dhading in suspicious circumstances. The boy belonging to the Dalit community was in a relationship with a girl from the so-called ‘upper caste’, which her family opposed.
The police recorded his death as suicide and his corpse declared as unidentified as he belonged to Kavrepalanchok, a different district. The body was quickly buried by the authorities without informing the family.
Suspecting foul play, Hari Bhakta, Ajit’s father, filed the first information report with the Area Police Office, Gajuri of Dhading on July 17, 2016, claiming the case to be murder. He named three relatives of the girl as suspects. The police, after investigating the incident, lodged a case in the district court. In June 2018, the Dhading District Court acquitted all three accused.
The decision was challenged in a higher court. However, the Patan High Court in April 2022 upheld the lower court’s verdict to acquit the accused.
After instructions from the High Court Public Prosecutor’s Office, the Office of the Attorney General decided not to appeal the judgement. Unsatisfied with the decision, Ajit’s father moved the Supreme Court challenging the decisions of the subordinate courts. Ajit’s corpse is lying in a morgue in Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital as his family is unwilling to perform the funeral rites until justice is served.
“In Nepal, where caste-based discrimination is systemic and widespread, several Dalits like Mijar even lose lives due to the criminal practice,” read a research report by Amnesty International unveiled on Friday. “Yet justice is not served.”
The report “No One Cares: Descent-Based Discrimination against Dalits” documents the experience of systemic caste-based discrimination in Nepal and the challenges they face in accessing justice.
The report based on focus group discussions with 52 individuals from different sectors and one-on-one meetings with 21 representing Dalit communities from Madhesh, Lumbini and Karnali provinces says that the victims are discouraged to register complaints. And even when cases are lodged, there is no assurance of justice owing to the loopholes in the existing law, as per the report.
It claims that at the time of registering a first information report (FIR), the Dalit victims are required to produce evidence of untouchability practice or the discrimination they faced. In some incidents, the victims are beaten by the police to deter them from filing the cases, states the report.
As per the records at the Attorney General’s Office, as many as 52 cases relating to caste-based discrimination were filed in the district courts. Of them, 15 ended in conviction while 12 resulted in acquittal. Similarly, among 42 cases filed in the high courts, only 10 resulted in conviction.
If the claim of Durga Sob, a Dalit rights activist, is anything to go by, less than five percent of cases of caste-based discrimination reach the police.
The reports claim that untouchability has become a norm even if untouchability and caste-based discrimination have been prohibited and criminalised by law.
“Untouchability is an everyday affair in Nepal and the culture of impunity is deeply rooted in the society,” said Monica Vincent, a lead researcher of the report. “The role of the police has been seen as a barrier in accessing justice.”
Officials at the Amnesty International say there are constitutional as well as legal instruments in place against the caste-based discrimination. However, they have not been rightly implemented.
“The authorities in Nepal are not doing enough to counteract the culture of impunity for human rights violations related to descent-based discrimination in Nepal,” said Fernanda Doz Costa, Amnesty International’s director for gender and racial justice programme.
“Efforts made by the authorities are still inadequate and insufficient, and they seem to exist only on paper but do not translate into real changes in the lives and the human rights of Dalits, Dalit women and girls in particular.”
The organisation pointed out that impunity is rampant for several reasons, including inadequate statute of limitations provisioned in existing laws, lack of representation of Dalits in the justice system and institutional discrimination in the police and lack of effective oversight mechanisms and accountability.
“Dalits do not trust the police and the justice system in general, and the limited government level data and statistics available [only 30-43 cases per year registered under the Caste-based Discrimination and Untouchability, (Offence and Punishment) Act] confirm their distrust is well-founded, including for Dalit women confronting caste-based violence,” reads the report.
“The inactions or limited actions of Nepali authorities, including failing to hold public officers accountable and closing the trust deficits are reinforcing this culture of impunity and are sending a message to society that caste- and gender-based discrimination and violence are acceptable and natural.”
Amnesty International said the Nepali authorities must create a holistic plan for a truly transformative response to uproot the caste- and gender-based violence and discrimination based on human rights obligations and with an intersectional lens.
There is an urgent need to take special measures to improve the situation of Dalit women and girls due to the inter-generational history of oppression and entrenched culture of caste bias, patriarchy and discrimination, it said.
“Nepal must fulfil its obligation to provide effective, timely and meaningful access to justice and reparations for survivors. It must move away from merely paying lip service to the ideals of achieving equality for all but take a concrete human-rights-centric approach to relegating descent-based discrimination to the dustbins of history,” said Costa.
