Eight men, including six minors were arrested in Nepal for allegedly committing a robbery. One evening when these people were waiting for public transportation, two police vans stopped and the police officers ordered the victims to stand beside the road. The police did not listen to the fact that they were returning from a religious ceremony and arrested them. The victims were first beaten on the street for a period of one hour with bamboo sticks, butt of the guns and even kicked them with their police boots. In addition they were also verbally abused, said one victim.
The victims were than taken to a local hospital for a medical check up but did not receive any medical attention. Then the victims were taken to jail and were again interrogated inhumanely where the police personnel beat them again, causing swelling in one of the victims eardrum. They were then forced to dig a pond during their five day detention period. The victims were then appeared in court where their detention was extended by another ten days. The shocking fact is that the victims were not asked nor were they allowed to complain about the torture they faced in jail.
Who should be held responsible for such atrocities happening in Nepal? What steps should the government of Nepal and the UN take to ensure that this does not happen again in future? Should the minors not be tried in a separate court of law?
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
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5 comments:
This story is absolutely absurd and it sickens me to think that one's human rights could be so blatantly violated simply because corruption has pervaded every crevice of the justice system. What upsets me to a greater extent is man's inhumanity to man. How do people commit such unthinkable acts of cruelty against one another, especially adults against minors? Who do we trust to protect our rights if the law enforcers put into place by the government are the ones violating the law?
First and foremost, justice will never be served unless people are held as innocent until proven guilty. I do not want to give criminals the benefit of the doubt, but a trial by jury is the most effective way to prove an individual's innocence or guilt. Without the existence of this type of justice system, police will be able to arbitrarily commit acts of violence against potential criminals like the ones in Nepal.
Secondly, minors do deserve to be tried separately from adults. Unless the situation demands that minor is to be tried as an adult, as is done sometimes in the US (another conversation entirely), minors do deserve to be treated differently because of their naive and often irresponsible impressionability.
The situation in Nepal is not very surprising to me. Nepal is still a developing agricultural society, lacking the proper systems of justice and crime-fighting that exists in the US and other developed nations. Such abuses will continue to persist until countries like Nepal can develop proper law enforcement and become just systems.
It is unbelievable to think that this type of blatant abuse, of ones human rights, is taking place in our world today. It is tragic but realistically it is not only in Nepal that this type of torture is taking place. It is also in places like Darfur where there is a massive genocide taking place on our watch, and in Swaziland where women are treated as minors and don’t have “human rights.” They instead have to ask the male figure to do even the simplest tasks like leave the house.
It is in these developing countries and in many others where injustices are taking place. But when a situation like that of Nepal occurs where police officers are torturing minors in general and especially before even being proven guilty who are the citizens to trust? How do they know any better if they have never experienced our world? Are we turning our backs on fellow humans or is it not our place to step in?
All of this in the year 2007? One would think we have evolved. We have invented PC's, the Internet and e-mail. National boundaries have all but dropped due to international trade, the creation of the UN, and other international institutions. On a more micro level, via the Internet citizens of a variety of different countries can communicate and share ideas. On this blog alone there are comments and blogs posted by individuals from many different nations. So with all this progressiveness and enlightened thought it is virtually impossible to claim ignorance, to say, "I don't know better". Consequently, it makes the actions of Nepal even more horrific. Nepal knows what human rights are, it has not lived under a rock nor is it ignorant of international standards. Nepal chooses to abuse its power and terrorize its citizens. Because arbitrarily beating one's citizens is terrorism by the state. However, Nepal isn't the only one to blame.
It has been said that the greatest evil is good men doing nothing. A state is only as great as its people. People, and therefore states, can only treat you they way you allow them to. And with martyrs and revolutions and people banning together change can occur. It may take bloodshed and sacrifice but Human Rights abuses need not occur and can be ended and prevented. How? This may sound idealist but history has proven it to be true. Human Rights abuses can end when good men and women stop doing nothing and stand up for their rights. Human Rights can be prevented, by constant vigilance by the people. By that I mean, people have to monitor the health of their Human Rights and not allow slippages and even the subtlest backslides. Because these things have a way of gaining inertia one’s Human Rights can eventually be eroded entirely. Perhaps not for your generation, or the next, but generations in the future.
I reminded you all earlier of our interconnectedness. If I were being beaten in front of you, would you help me? Of course you would because you are good people. By that same reasoning we cannot let citizens of Nepal or any nation be beaten in front of us. Please let’s not delude ourselves, it is happening in front of us. We read about it, right now we are talking it about it, so let’s also help. We should inspire and encourage Nepal to stand up for their rights and support them when they finally decide to. We can't leave it to governments to protect our Human Rights, that is our job. For the government it is much easier a cheaper to violate human rights and beat and prosecute suspects rather than go through the time, procedure, difficulty, and money of a trial by jury.
There is another saying, countries don't have friends they have interests. Leaders highest interest is staying in power. And by threatening to end that power, average citizens can place human rights in a country's interest. Not only the citizens in Nepal but the citizens in America too. Due to our fear of terrorism we have let some slippages occur in our country. We used to be a country comprised of good men standing up for what they believe in. Our citizens used to be vigilant and participate in as well as keep an eye on our government. Will America be tomorrow's Nepal or will the citizens stop being terrified long enough to resume our previous integrity, and mimic the courage of our soldiers by protecting freedom at home as fervently as they do abroad.
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