Bhutan human rights record

New Delhi, August 06: Asian Centre for Human Rights (ACHR) said Bhutan is one of the front runner of human rights violations in South Asian region in the year 2007. In the report published by the organizations recently, Bhutan has been ranked third in terms of rights violations among the seven nations in the region.

ACHR states that Sri Lanka (with 52 points) is the worst human rights violator in South Asia followed by Bangladesh (45 points), Bhutan (43 points), Pakistan (41 points), Maldives (23 points), Nepal (24 points) and India (24 points).

In 2007, Bhutan made gains over past years but the watershed development for allowing two-party guided democracy in Bhutan was discredited by the ban on 70,000 alleged "foreigners", ethnic Nepalis, to participate in the mock elections held in 2007.

"On the judiciary, the King of Bhutan not only remained the absolute authority to grant pardon, appoint and dismiss judges but of the five new judges appointed in 2006, three were senior civil servants who have no legal background," the report said.

The South Asian rights watchdog also points finger at the poor status of press freedom in the country. "On press freedom too, Bhutan was the worst performer. Bhutan allowed the registration of two private newspapers - The Bhutan Times and The Bhutan Observer. In June 2007, the "www.bhutantimes.com" website was blocked from viewing in Bhutan."

ACHR says, India underwrites Bhutan’s racism. In May 2008, India prevented "Long March" of exiled Bhutanese to Bhutan at least one of them identified as Saha Bahadur Dewan was shot dead and at least 100 others were injured by India’s security forces.

ACHR said the indexing system is based on comparative assessment of nine thematic issues crucial for the enjoyment of human rights: political freedom, right to life, judiciary and administration of justice, status or effectiveness of national human rights institutions, press freedom, violence against women, violations of the rights of the child, violations of the rights of the minorities and indigenous/tribal peoples and repression on human rights defenders.

While Sri Lanka is the worst in the region, the report also underlines that all countries in the region have very poor records. The regional analysis also shows a high level of commonality in human rights patterns. Discrimination is endemic, institutionalised and in many cases legalized, the report stated.

The regional human rights watchdog suggested for reform of archaic and punitive criminal and penal laws and the regime of sovereign immunity for the government and its personnel and reform of the official mindset with regard to human rights.

However, it said, reform will not happen if human rights violations, committed both by the security forces and armed groups, are not promptly, thoroughly, independently and impartially investigated and those responsible brought to justice, and if the system which allowed them to commit those crimes remains intact.

ACHR adds that south Asia is becoming increasingly a victim to internal conflicts as a result of the failure to reform where impunity to the security forces and the Armed Opposition Groups is the rule.

Apart from strengthening the national mechanism to address such violations, ACHR recommended to establish a working Group of Eminent Persons of South Asia to explore the possibility of drafting a South Asia Human Rights Convention with full and active participation of civil society groups and other stakeholders.

ACHR also urges the National Human Rights Institutions in South Asia to emulate the role of their counterparts in South East Asia to establish a South Asia Sub-Regional human rights mechanism. Bhutan does not have any national human rights institutions.

Source: Bhutan News Service (August 06, 2008)