The United States Department of State’s 2024 Country Report on Human Rights Practices for Nepal gives a bleak report of persisting human rights concerns, citing credible reports of arbitrary killings, torture, arbitrary detention, abridgment of press freedom, and human trafficking. While the government has prosecuted some abuses, it “did not consistently punish officials convicted of human rights abuses,” as per the report published on Aug 12.
While the 2023 report has a very lengthy introduction and numerous appendices and references, this new report only has a single introductory page which is strong on a desire to “decrease the volume of statistical data in the report.” The country reports by themselves are, overall, one-third the length of the previous year.
International media like AP, AFP, CNN and Reuters among others accused the report of having taken a stunning turn with references removed to sexual orientation abuses, and horrid conditions in ally countries played down as a shot at people who have gotten into trouble with US President Donald Trump.
The report has alleviated condemnation of a number of states that have proved to be staunch supporters of the Republican leader, such as El Salvador and Israel, which human rights activists assert have had established records of violations. Rather, the State Department issued an alarm of what it called a sliding trend of freedom of speech in Europe, including the UK, and stepped up its attacks on Brazil and South Africa, both nations with which Washington has been at loggerheads over a myriad of issues.
The report was published months later after Trump officials drastically rewrote an early draft to make it conform to the principles of ‘America First’, government officials said on condition of anonymity with Al Jazeera.
Coming back to Nepal, the report states while the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) documented no allegations of arbitrary deaths at the hands of security forces during 2024, there were four deaths in prison from January through mid-Aug 2024, reportedly caused by torture, denial of medical attention, and inhumane prison conditions.
One such incident was with Sunil Shahi, who died on 8 April 2024 in the Kailali prison when he was allegedly brutally attacked with an iron rod by prison officials and inmates after a failed attempt to escape. His body showed signs of utmost brutality, and the investigation continues.
The government went on paying the family of Padam Limbu, a protester who succumbed to police injuries in 2023. Limbu, who was declared a martyr, had already been awarded Rs 1.3m in the previous year and was awarded another Rs 500,000 in Feb 2024.
Even though Nepal’s constitution stands up for free expression, journalists have to deal with structural and situational barriers. Ambiguity of the criminal code, defamation legislation, and the Broadcasting and Working Journalist Acts allows selective prosecution and fosters self-censorship.
On 19 Feb 2024, photojournalists protested at Tundikhel when they were not allowed into Democracy Day events organized by the Nepali Army for a last-minute ‘special pass’ requirement.
The report also refers to threats to investigative journalists. Center for Investigative Journalism–Nepal reporter Gopal Dahal was threatened in Dec 2024 by Dharan Sub-metropolitan City Mayor Harka Sampang and his supporters following a critical report.
In July 2024, journalists reporting on a protest against ride-sharing were assaulted by public transit operators. The government took no action about it, the Federation of Nepali Journalists (FNJ) said. Death threats were also leveled against the then-general secretary of the FNJ on stories on smuggling.
The Labor Law of 2017 preserves the freedom to bargain collectively and unionize but is not strong in enforcement, particularly in the informal sector, where over 70 percent of the workers and over 90 percent of the women work. The State Department reports that the Ministry of Labor does not have sufficient inspectors to enforce minimum wage, hour, and occupational safety laws since some of the positions are unfilled.
Although there are fines, they are never imposed in the private sector. Occupational safety enforcement has been referred to as “the most neglected area,” and violations were found in agriculture, construction, mining, transport, and factories.
The study finds routine police practice of arresting individuals before interrogation and coercing them into confession. While the law requires suspects to be taken to court within 24 hours, the Advocacy Forum found that police violated this rule in eight percent of over 1,100 cases it followed.
In perhaps the most high-profile case, Kantipur Media Group chair Kailash Sirohiya was held in May 2024 for suspected misuse of an illegitimate citizenship number. The FNJ termed the arrest as retaliation for Kantipur Daily’s reportage on senior politicians.
Protracted pretrial detention is a concern due to court delay, whereby individuals are at times detained for years before their trial. Preventive detention, for as long as 12 months without being charged, was not used in 2024, according to the report. Although torture is criminalized, the statute of limitations stands at six months, and impunity is the norm. NGOs documented 16 allegations of torture in police detention through mid-Aug 2024, mostly affecting poor and vulnerable individuals. Police reluctance to investigate fellow officers, victim intimidation, and coercive extrajudicial settlements all facilitated impunity.
Marriage before age 20 is illegal, but child marriage remains common, especially among Dalits and Madhesis. Between mid-July and the end of the last fiscal year, the police documented 52 cases. Early marriage still restricts education for girls and exacerbates exposure to domestic violence and trafficking.
Only the pre-1990 Bhutanese and Tibetans are accepted as refugees by the government, whereas the majority of the other estimated 12,000 Tibetan refugees are not documented. Other state refugees like Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Sri Lanka are regarded as irregular migrants despite having been accepted by UNHCR. Exit permits for third-country resettlement charge refugees Rs 1,063 ($8) a day as a fine for ‘illegal stay’. The government has not been issuing Tibetans with new refugee cards since 1995.
Social stigma against unmarried pregnant women, including migrant workers, is also reported. There were no reports of enforced disappearances, though transitional justice under a newly amended Truth and Reconciliation law still has to be put into practice.
The State Department concludes that there has been no essential transformation in the general human rights situation in the country, while documenting ongoing abuses from arbitrary killings to restriction on press freedom and inadequate labor protections.
The report cites “credible reports” of illegal or arbitrary killings, torture, arbitrary detention, limitation of freedom of speech, and trafficking in people, including forced labor. While the government attempted to investigate some of the abuses, the State Department reports that punishment for convicted officials remained sporadic.
It says that while Nepal has a legal system for protecting rights, the enforcement is selective and uneven, and vulnerable groups like journalists, marginalized groups, refugees, and informal workers remain at risk of systemic threats.
Neighbors’ watch
About India, the report said, “The government took minimal credible steps or action to identify and punish officials who committed human rights abuses.” It says the same for Sri Lanka too.
On Pakistan, it added, “The government rarely took credible steps to identify and punish officials who committed human rights abuses.”
The report flagged “significant human rights issues” in Bangladesh. It says that primarily under the previous government of Sheikh Hasina, there were credible reports of: arbitrary or unlawful killings; disappearances; torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment; arbitrary arrest or detention; transnational repression against individuals in another country by the previous government, serious restrictions on freedom of expression and media freedom, including violence or threats of violence against journalists, unjustified arrests or prosecutions of journalists, and censorship; significant restrictions on workers’ freedom of association; violence or threats against labor activists or union members; and significant presence of the worst forms of child labor.
But the report says the interim government of Muhammad Yunus worked with the United Nations and used both its ordinary justice system and the Bangladeshi International Criminal Tribunal to hold the perpetrators accountable.
For China, the report says genocide and crimes against humanity occurred against predominantly Muslim Uyghurs and members of other ethnic and religious minority groups. However, the government did not take credible steps or action to identify or punish officials who committed human rights abuses, it says.