Human Rights Based on Class Interests: Gaurav
by Mohan Nepali, Kathmandu
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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