Human Rights Based on Class Interests: Gaurav

The Foreign Affairs Chief of the Communist Party of Nepal (CPN-Maoist) Saturday said that there can be no cent percent impartial human rights approaches in a class-based society. Opening the Kathmandu District Conference of the Campaign for Human Rights and Social Transformation (CAHURAST), he said, “Nepal needs a human rights institution that effectively exposes the extreme human rights violations committed by the state as human rights perspectives are based on class interests.” He expressed the view that there are mainly three categories of human rights approaches: first that helps the state to conceal its violations against citizens by highlighting the violations by only the people’s forces, second that advocates human rights through donation-based I/NGOs that try to neutralize human rights violations by stating in their reports that both the state and the rebels have violated rights equally and such human rights approaches avoid pressurizing the state to become accountable to its international commitments, and the third that really makes human rights a field of people’s forces to work within at grassroot level. The third approach of human rights, according to Gajurel, emphasizes on the people’s struggles for implementing human rights at grassroot level. Gajurel added, “Social transformation is a prerequisite for the protection of human rights.” Gajurel pointed out that even after Maoists have joined the peace process, other feudalist and criminal forces are massacring people by fueling communal violence in different parts of the country. “When 30 Maoist cadres were massacred at Gaur, where were human rights agencies?,” he questioned. He repeated his party’s precondition that the declaring Nepal a republic is essential not to repeat the historical blunder of getting nothing after people’s climax struggles. He suspected that monarchy is not only in the traditional palaces and institutions but also in central committees of different parties.

Speaking at the same program, another central Maoist leader Dinanath Sharma said that human rights and political struggles are interconnected. “Those who think or say that human rights activists must detach themselves from politics are status-quoists,” Sharma added. He was of the opinion that some kind of conspiracy and dishonesty are involved in saying that political movement and human rights movement have no link. Struggles are essential for social transformation in Sharma’s opinion. Sharma pointed out to the need of forwarding human rights movement to the grassroot level by equally stressing on the basic needs such as food, shelter, clothing, education and health.

Speaking at the program, United Marxist-Leninist (UML) representative Dr. Bhishma Adhikari pointed out to how the ill-culture of violating human rights began from the time of the initial Shah dynasty. He said, “Both the state and the Maoists violated human rights during Maoist People’s War.

Bishnu Pukar Shrestha, the Chairman of the CAHURAST, said that this human rights institution wants to analyze and synthesize historical lessons of human rights movement so as to advance the movement as a door-to-door campaign for the implementation of the people’s rights to food, shelter and clothing.

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