Nepal: NHRC calls for improvements to detention facilities

A high level team of NHRC, under the leadership of Commissioner Sudip Pathak and Govinda Sharma Poudel, has monitored the prisons and detention centres across the country including Kaski, Parbat and Baglung districts in initial phase.

Upon monitoring the district prisons, the attention of the authority has been drawn to the sorry state of district prisons of Kaski, Parvat and Baglung, especially their extremely ramshackle physical infrastructures.

Preliminary report submitted by the monitoring team says that all the detention centres and prisons are overcrowded and lacking basic facilities like medical facilities, sanitation and so on.

The team found the jail accommodated 520 inmates in the actual capacity of just 60 inmates.

Expressing the serious concern about the sorry state of existing jails in various districts, the Commission has drawn the attention of the government to the miserable condition of physical infrastructure of the prisons and detention centres and called on authorities to make necessary improvement so that human rights of the detainees is upheld.

The report also suggests some minors are also found living with their parents in some jails with no prospects of future. "Their future course of life must be determined and ensured', the report expresses with a sense of urgency.

"Several commissions that were formed in the past have recommended measures to improve the safety and well-being of inmates. Had these recommendations been acted upon, jails in Nepal would have reached international standards," said Commissioner Pathak.

The NHRC had previously monitored Nakkhu Jail of Lalitpur and Hanumandhoka Detention Centre.

The NHRC members were accompanied by Investigation and Planning Division Head Yagya Prasad Adhikari, NHRC/Regional Office Head Dr. Tikaram Pokhrel, Human Rights Officers, Shyambau Kafle, Jyoti Ghimire, and some human rights defenders.

Source: Human Rights Commission of Nepal