Enforced Disappearance of Padman Narayan Nakarmi in September 2003

The Case

In January 2012, TRIAL submitted an individual communication to the United Nations Human Rights Committee regarding the enforced disappearance of Mr. Padman Narayan Nakarmi in September 2003. In this case TRIAL also represents the victim's wife, Mrs. Ram Maya Nakarmi and the interests of their daughter, Ms. Luman Nakarmi, who was three years old at the time of Mr. Nakarmi's enforced disappearance.

At the time of his arrest and subsequent enforced disappearance, Mr. Nakarmi worked as an iron monger in a small iron grill enterprise in Bungmati, Lalitpur. He had never been arrested previously. On 23 September 2003, Mr. Nakarmi was arrested and taken from his home by approximately half a dozen plain-clothed security personnel who identified themselves by way of their official identity cards as members of the Royal Nepal Army deployed from Bhairab Nath Barracks, Kathmandu. Several people witnessed his arrest, namely his wife, his mother and his brother. As stated in the First Information Report (FIR) submitted to the Kathmandu District Police Office in June 2006, the security personnel informed Mrs. Ram Maya Nakarmi that her husband had been arrested and taken away for interrogation, albeit without giving any further details. This was the last time that Mrs. Nakarmi had any contact with her husband.

His relatives took numerous steps in order to find him. Mrs. Ram Maya Nakarmi visited Bhairab Nath Barracks in Maharajgunj, Lagankhel Barracks in Lalitpur, the Nepal Police Headquarters in Naxal, Kathmandu and the District Police Office (DPO) in Hannumandhoka, Kathmandu on a regular basis for two years following the arbitrary arrest of Mr. Padam Narayan Nakarmi but she was never able to receive further information.

A few days after Mr. Nakarmi's arrest, Mrs. Nakarmi also attempted to register a First Information Report (FIR) with the DPO in Patan. The DPO refused to register the FIR on the grounds that it was impossible in the current case as enforced disappearance was not a listed crime under national legislation. It was only three years later, in 2006, that Mrs. Nakarmi was allowed to file a FIR with the DPO Hanumandhoka, Kathmandu. But no action whatsoever was undertaken by the authorities on its basis.

In response to the lack of investigation and prosecution, on 4 January 2007, Mrs. Nakarmi filed a writ of mandamus before the Supreme Court of Nepal against different offices of the government and several specific individuals from the then RNA.

In the same year, on 1 June 2007, the Supreme Court ruled on the habeas corpus petition of 83 disappeared persons. While a habeas corpus petition was never filed on behalf of Mr. Nakarmi, his death due to torture under RNA custody in Bhairav Nath Barracks is mentioned in one of the 83 writs examined by the court. The same Supreme Court decision ordered the Government to enact domestic legislative measures defining and criminalising enforced disappearances, prosecute the officials found responsible for these crimes and provides a substantial compensation to victims and their families.

Apart from a minimal interim compensation of 100,000 NRs (approximately 1.000 euros) received in June 2009 by Mrs. Ram Maya Nakamri, the above decision by the Supreme Court has fallen on deaf ears as it has not been acted upon or implemented in any meaningful way to date by the national authorities.

On 26 August 2010, the Supreme Court of Nepal quashed the mandamus writ filed by Mrs. Nakarmi in January 2007. The rationale given by the court was that the applicant had to wait until the government formed a Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) to address the problem of disappearances in Nepal. But in spite of various public commitments by the newly-formed (in April 2008) Constituent Assembly, the continued lack of political will by the main Nepalese parties has meant the impossibility of setting up any sort of accountability system.

In January 2012, TRIAL submitted an individual communication to the United Nations Human Rights Committee asking it

to recognize that Nepal violated numerous articles of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights due to Mr. Nakarmi's enforced disappearance, the ongoing failure of Nepalese authorities to conduct an effective investigation and prosecution of the crime and the ensuing suffering endured by Mr. Nakarmi's spouse and daughter owing to the disappearance of their loved one;

to require a thorough and independent investigation into the arbitrary deprivation of liberty and enforced disappearance of Mr. Padam Narayan Nakarmi and, in the event of his death, the localization, exhumation, identification and restitution of his mortal remains to the family;

to request Nepal to prosecute the people responsible for Mr. Nakarmi's disappearance;

to require Nepal to immediately suspend from office all army officials against whom there is prima facie evidence that they were involved in the enforced disappearance of Mr. Padam Narayan Nakarmi pending the outcome of investigations against them;

to request Nepal to ensure that the author obtain prompt, fair and adequate compensation covering both material and moral damages and that measures of reparation adopted in their favor incorporate measures aiming at providing restitution, rehabilitation, satisfaction (including restoration of dignity and reputation) and guarantees of non-repetition.

General context             

The enforced disappearance of Mr. Padam Narayan Nakarmi is part of the context of internal armed conflict which Nepal has experienced between February 1996, when the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) overtly declared war against the official governmental authorities of Nepal, and November 2006, when the different parties to the conflict signed the Comprehensive Peace Agreement sanctioning a formal end to hostilities.

The conflict rapidly spread all over the country. In 2001, when violence truly escalated into a civil war, a state of emergency was declared.  The conflict caused not only severe economic and social damages in Nepal but also put the country’s name in the list of the top human rights violators worldwide. The recourse to enforced disappearances, torture, summary executions and arbitrary detentions by State agents and Maoists was generalized during this period. Reportedly thousands of enforced disappearances occurred through the practice of unofficial detention by the security forces.

 [From TRIAL: http://www.trial-ch.org]