The All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for International Freedom of Religion or Belief (FoRB)-UK visited South Asian Forum for Freedom of Religion or Belief (SAF-FORB) Nepal Team on 7th December 2022.
A special delegation team of Rt. Hon. Tommy Sheppard, Member of the Westminster Parliament for Edinburgh East; Mr. David Burrowes, Prime Minister’s Deputy Special Envoy for Freedom of Religion or Belief, Ms. Julie Jones, Deputy Assistant Director, APPG, Mr. Mark Hill KC, Barrister and Ms. Rachel Miner visited the country team and discussed the FoRB situation in Nepal.
During the visit Rt. Hon. Tommy Sheppard stated that the government of Nepal will strengthen its measures to effectively implementation of constitutional provision in the true sense of FoRB, in particular, by sensitizing law enforcement officials, investigating and prosecuting those responsible for discrimination against religious minorities and conducting awareness-raising campaigns on the rights of religious minorities.
On behalf of SAFFORB Nepal team Dr. Mahendra Bhattrai, Chairperson of SAFFoRB handover a memorandum to the delegation team. Dr. Bhattrai said that, “UK government will play a positive role to amend all discriminatory legal provisions against religious minorities in Nepal in line with the international Human Rights standard”.
Various representatives from religious minorities participatedin the meeting. Ven. Piyadashi, Nahida Banu, Seema Khan, Bimala Gayak, Shankar Limbu, and Rambhakta Kurumwang also shared their special concern with the delegation team regarding freedom of religion and state’s negligence to promote and protect Human Rights of religious minorities.
The Nepal Treaty Act of 1991 explicitly provides for the precedence of international treaties over national laws. The Constitution of Nepal, 2015, recognizes the “secular” nature of the State. It guarantees the right of individuals to freely “profess, practice and preserve” their religion, and prohibits discrimination on a number of grounds, including on the basis of one’s religion. However, the government fails to guarantee the right to freedom of thought and conscience, which, in turn, includes the freedom to have theistic, non-theistic or atheistic beliefs, and the freedom not to profess any religion or belief, which, in turn, is an integral part of the freedom to manifest one’s religious belief.
The government is not involved in implementation of the directive orders of the Supreme Court issued in 2012 to concerned government agencies to arrange for alternative places for burial without hurting anyone’s religious sentiments. Similarly, Nepal’s Penal Code, 2017, criminalizes converting any one from one religion to another, as well as the abetment of such “conversion”. The retention of the prohibition of “proselytism” in the new Constitution and criminalization of the same in the new Penal Code, 2017, discrimination and religion-based abuses against religious minorities, denial of use of burial grounds and cemeteries, and lack of equality before the law and equal protection of the law without discrimination are among the major concerns regarding the right to freedom of religion or belief in the country.
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