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“Human rights are not negotiable items that companies and governments are permitted to eliminate by contract.” 

That’s a quote from Andrea Shemberg, a former legal adviser to Amnesty International UK. 

Here’s one more, from Maximilien Robespierre, “Any law which violates the indefeasible rights of man is in essence unjust and tyrannical, it is no law.” 

There is virtually no aspect of our work that does not have a human rights dimension. Whether we are talking about peace and security, development, humanitarian action, the struggle against terrorism, climate change, none of these challenges can be addressed by ignoring human rights.

We know that the French Declaration of Rights of Man and of the Citizen (1789) was the first document, which referred to social, economic and cultural rights, rights to education, work, property and social protection.

In 1941, the Atlantic Charter was declared, which made way for an International Bill of Rights (1942-45) and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) on 10 Dec 1948. 

Article 25.1 of UDHR states:

“Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social service and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.” 

The International Commission on  Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), 1976  and International  Commission on Economical, Social and Cultural Rights 1976 oblige signatory nations to ensure human rights and so does UDHR. 

Nepal is also a party to international human rights conventions, covenants and protocols.

Worryingly, appointments made to the National Human Rights Commission, the constitutional rights watchdog, have failed to meet national and international standards, including those outlined in the Paris Principles. 

After conducting a review for two consecutive years, a Ganhri Subcommittee on accreditation (SCA) in October last year recommended downgrading NHRC to the “B’’ category. Notably, one of the commissioners is requesting the government to amend the relevant Act and give NHRC more authority in line with the Paris Principles to avoid this action. The rights watchdog, caught in deep sleep for long, seems to have woken up and has begun blaming the state for failing to defend its appointments. A statement from the appointees reads, “Our appointments alone are not responsible for the downgrading. The government’s failure to strongly defend the appointments before the United Nations Human Rights Committee is primarily responsible for the Ganhri action. 

A bad carpenter quarrels with his tools.

Let’s go back a little bit to understand the crisis better. 

The Constitutional Council under the then Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli had  nominated chairpersons and members at various constitutional bodies, including the NHRC, on the basis of the Constitutional Council Act revised through an ordinance on 15 Dec 2020. The then President, Bidya Devi Bhandari, subsequently appointed the chair and four commissioners at the NHRC on 3 Feb 2021 on the government’s recommendations. 

Even during the reign of King Gyanendra, NHRC was not in such a sorry state. The SCA is bound to review the commission’s present status following complaints from several human rights bodies, chiefly over the appointments of NHRC officials. 

In the reviews conducted in 2021 and 2022 also, the Ganhri commission had recommended downgrading NHRC, pointing at the unconstitutional appointment process. NHRC’s ‘inability’ to safeguard minority rights did not help either. Add to it all half-a-dozen writ petitions challenging the ordinance and the appointment process that are sub-judice in the Supreme Court as well as civil society organizations’ dissatisfaction with the working process of NHRC.

Against this backdrop, who will come to the rescue of the constitutional rights body? 

The author is a former member of NHRC

Ahead of COP28, which is taking place in the UAE from Nov 30 to Dec 12, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has pledged to draw the attention of the international community about the unfolding climate crisis in the Himalayas.

Nepal’s political leaders and environmentalists say COP28 is the best platform to highlight the issues of climate change in the Himalayas. Gutterres is likely to flag this issue at COP28, which will immensely help to internationalize the mountain agenda.

After a visit to the Everest region, he urged the international community to stop the madness of climate change. “The rooftops of the world are caving in,” he said, noting that Nepal had lost nearly a third of its ice in just over three decades. Nepal’s glaciers melted 65 faster in the last decade than in the previous one, said Guterres.

The UN chief further said, “Today from the base of Mt Everest, I saw for myself the terrible impacts of the climate crisis on the Himalayas. As temperatures rise, glacier melt increases—threatening the lives and livelihoods of entire communities.”

In the Everest region, the UN head held interactions with local communities and learned about the multifaceted impact of climate change in their daily lives and livelihoods.

Glaciers in the wider Himalayan and Hindu Kush ranges are a crucial water source for around 240 million people in the mountainous regions, as well as for another 1.65bn people in the South Asian and Southeast Asian river valleys below, according to AFP.

The glaciers feed 10 of the world’s most important river systems, including the Ganges, Indus, Yellow, Mekong and Irrawaddy, and directly or indirectly supply billions of people with food, energy, clean air and income, AFP reports.  “I am here today to cry out from the rooftop of the world: stop the madness,” Guterres further said.

“The glaciers are retreating, but we cannot. We must end the fossil fuel age,” he said. Hardest hit are the most vulnerable people and the world’s poorest countries, which have done little to contribute to the fossil fuel emissions that drive up temperatures.

“We must act now to protect people on the frontline, and to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees, to avert the worst of climate chaos,” Guterres said. “The world can’t wait.”

“Melting glaciers means swollen lakes and rivers flooding, sweeping away entire communities,” he added. But all too soon, glaciers will dry up if change is not made, he warned. “In the future, major Himalayan rivers like the Indus, the Ganges and Brahmaputra could have massively reduced flows,” he said. “That spells a catastrophe.”

Though the impact of climate change on mountains is devastating, it does not figure prominently in the global summits like COP. For a long time, Nepal has been raising this issue in the international platforms asking all stakeholders to take this matter seriously.

While addressing the 78th UNGA, Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal said climate vulnerable mountainous countries like Nepal have been bearing the severe brunt of climate change. 

The Himalayas are the source of freshwater for over two billion people, PM said: Global warming has induced rapid receding of ice in our Himalayas. It has not only eroded the health of our mountains but also endangered the lives and livelihoods of millions of people living downstream. 

The United Nations Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, has said that Nepal’s transitional justice process should meet the international standards, the Supreme Court’s ruling and the needs of the conflict victims.

Speaking with media persons after meeting with Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, the head of the global body stated that Nepal has embarked on the final stages of the peace process with progress on transitional justice process. Government is making preparations to present an amendment bill in the federal Parliament for endorsement but conflict victims and the international community are expressing dissatisfaction over some of the provisions. They are of the view that there still is room for blanket amnesty in the proposed bill.

Transitional justice must help bring peace to victims, families and communities, the secretary-general said, The United Nations stands ready to support Nepal to develop a process that meets international standards, the Supreme Court’s rulings, and the needs of victims—and put it into practice.

The UN Chief, who arrived in Kathmandu on Sunday, said he is in Kathmandu to strengthen the deep friendship and cooperation between Nepal and the UN.  Nepal has a long and proud tradition of championing peace and multilateralism, he said, and the United Nations is hugely grateful to Nepal for “your support for multilateral solutions—backed up by the enormous contribution you make to peacekeeping missions around the world.”

“Nepal’s progress over the past 20 years has been astonishing: You have become a republic, established peace and thrown yourselves behind the Sustainable Development Goals and climate action.” The next few years will be decisive, as Nepal prepares to graduate from Least Developed Country status, he said. Nepal is also caught in a blizzard of global crises not of its making: The aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic, inflation caused by the international economic situation and the enormous threat posed by climate chaos, the UN Chief said. “Much more international action is needed. Developed countries must step up to support sustainable development, and help developing economies including Nepal to tackle the climate crisis.”

On this trip, I will visit the Himalayas to see for myself the terrible impact of the climate crisis on the glaciers, he further said, describing the situation as “dire and accelerating”. 

He said: Nepal has lost close to a third of its ice in just over 30 years. And glaciers are melting at record rates. The impact on communities is devastating and I will meet local people in the Himalayas to hear directly from them about how they are affected. 

The UN head also spoke about the ongoing crisis in the Middle East. 

We are living in difficult and tense times, he said. “I know that even though the conflict in the Middle East is thousands of miles away, it has hit very close to home for the people of Nepal.”

The UN head extended his deepest condolences to the families of the 10 Nepali students killed in the terror attacks by Hamas in Israel on Oct 7, and extended his best wishes for the safe return of Bipin Joshi, who is missing.

“And I repeat my utter condemnation of the appalling attacks perpetrated by Hamas. There is no justification, ever, for the killing, injuring and abduction of civilians,” he said. 

“The situation in Gaza is growing more desperate by the hours. I regret that instead of a critically needed humanitarian pause supported by the international community, Israel has intensified its military operations.”

Guterres said he would also visit Lumbini, Gautam Buddha’s birthplace in southern Nepal “to reflect on Lord Buddha’s teachings of peace and non-violence, which are more relevant than ever in our deeply troubled world.”

After the restoration of multiparty democracy in 1990, Nepal has been taking steps toward hydropower generation. The 1990s saw efforts aimed at developing the Arun III hydropower project for domestic consumption with the World Bank pledging a loan for the same.

However, certain quarters, in favor of developing small hydropower projects over ‘big ones’, stood in opposition, in a pointer that the environment was not conducive for the same. Eventually, the World Bank withdrew its financing program for the project. 

Fast forward 2023. Per reports, India is on the verge of completing the export-oriented Arun III project. Most of the green energy generated from this project will be transmitted to India while Nepal will get a tiny fraction.  

China has also shown interest in hydropower generation in Nepal, but not with much success. 

In the 2010s, construction of the Upper Trishuli hydropower project was set to begin with investment from China’s Exim Bank and in cooperation with Nepal Electricity Authority. The Chinese company, which had completed one-fourth of the project works, abandoned this project altogether after facing obstructions in the name of capacity expansion. The capital invested in developing project components has gone waste. Currently, South Korea is showing interest in developing the project under the build, own, operate and transfer (BOOT) model. If geopolitical interests do not prevail, this project can still materialize. 

In cooperation with the Asian Development Bank, Snowy Mountain Engineering Corporation was to develop a 750-MW West Seti hydropower project. As the project remained stuck for long, the government canceled the license awarded to SMEC and picked China Three Gorges Corporation for project development, but to no avail. Now, an Indian developer has bagged this project without bidding. 

In 2017, the then government granted the China Gejuwa Group Corporation the license for developing the Budhigandaki hydropower project without opting for competitive bidding. But the new government that came to power the same year canceled the license. Now, the Pushpa Kamal Dahal-led government is trying to develop this 1200-MW project by mobilizing internal and external technical and financial resources. 

Despite its failure to bag big hydropower projects, China has two hydropower projects with a combined capacity of 75 MW—Modi and Upper Marsyangdi—in its hands. The BOOT-modeled 50-MW Upper Marsyangdi has materialized, whereas the 25-MW Modi hydel is under construction. A Chinese company has already developed the 456-MW Upper Tamakoshi hydel, while India is developing the 900-MW Arun III hydel.

Recently, India has expressed its ‘commitment’ to importing 10000 MW from Nepal in a period of 10 years while making it clear that it will not import electricity from projects developed with Chinese involvement.

It should be noted that India bagged the lucrative West Seti project after China opted out. West Seti is not an isolated case. The southern neighbor has gotten hold of a number of other attractive hydropower projects like SR-6, Arun IV and Lower Arun. It seems India wants to bag all lucrative hydropower projects by imposing direct or indirect restrictions on Chinese involvement in hydropower generation in Nepal. In this context, it may be worthwhile to recall Chinese ambassador Chen Song’s observations about trade imbalance between Nepal and India.  

Chen,  while commenting on a working paper presented at a program in Kathmandu last month, had noted that Nepal had exported electricity worth Rs 10bn to India in the last fiscal, while importing electricity worth Rs 19bn from India during the same period.

Three decades have passed since the signing of the Mahakali Treaty along with a plan for the development of the Pancheshwar project, with precious little done on the ground. 

This pretty much sums up the status of hydropower development in the country.