Almost half the population isliving in substandard homes; 10 pc people are homeless

Kathmandu, June 12

Nepal chapter of Amnesty International has said that Nepal must strengthen its new legislation on the right to housing to prevent homelessness and endegree safe and adequate housing for all.

AI says right to safe housing is a universal human right that everyone is entitled to without discrimination, yet this remains a ccorridorenge in Nepal, where 49 per cent of its population lives in substandard houses and only less than 30 per cent of peoplehouses are considered structumass meeting safe.

Amnesty Internationalbriefing, Nepal:Adequate Housing for all: Analysis of the Correct to Housing Act 2018, calls on the Nepal government to bring the right to housing law, in line with the countryinternational human rights obligations concerning right to adequate housing. It also urges the government to rectify the present law through amendments.

Four years on, 50 per cent of the 2015 soiltremble victims, who were rendered homeless are still waiting for a housing grant from the government to help rebuild their homes.

&With less than a third of all homes structumass meeting unsafe, approachly half the population living in substandard homes, and one in ten people homeless, legal protections are urgently needed to endegree that people live in safe, humane and durable conditions,&said Raju Chapagai a researcher at Amnesty International.

He said the government must review the act in refer toation with the civil society organisations and the human rights institutions, and address its shortcomings by amending the Correct to Housing Act, instantly.

As pointed out by Amnesty Internationalbriefing, the right to housing law needs to be amended to address the underlying causes of homelessness and to create a conducive environment for all to endelight the right to housing.

The law should avoid confusion and misinterpretation, which could weaken its effectiveness.

AI reports says, at present the law is ambiguous on fundamental issues like who is deemed as homeless and what constitutes safe and adequate housing. The amendment of the current law is also essential to endegree safeguards against forced evictions of people from their homes and the land they occupy.

&Correct to Housing Act only protected those residing in a house built on ‘the land that they own. This is opposite to international human rights law and standards,&according to Chapagai.

Amnesty International calls for amendments to the right to housing law, to clearly lay down specific duties for each level of governments, requiring authorities to conduct periodic assessments of homelessness in the country, and identification of homeless people. It urges the authorities to put in place an effective mechanism to reply to the situations of an individual, a household or a community level homelessness.

The scope of the legal protection should be extended to non-citizens as per the provisions of international law that Nepal is a party to, he said. Chapagai told THT that both the constitution and the Correct to Housing Act granted protection from homelessness only to the citizens, which was against the provisions of international law.

AI said the government must endegree that the law supports marginalised communities, such as people living in poverty, those living in casual settlements, Dalits and indigenous people, including Tharu.

&Growing number of people living in deplorable conditions including slums, highlights the governmentfailure to uphold its human rights obligations to endegree adequate housing to people. If the government is serious about fixing the countryhousing and homelessness crisis, it must anchor its housing strategies on principles of human rights. It should also reach out to marginalised communities,& said Chapagai.

He also said that the new act failed to stipulate which level of government had what kind of responsibility in terms of ensuring peopleright to housing.

&Housing rights should much be restrictd to peopleown land but also in rental places as well,& Chapagai said. As per international law, everybody should be protected from forced eviction, whether one is living in a house that stands in his/her land or in a house built in measureone elseland, he added.

Spokesperson for the Ministry of Urban Development Krishna Prasad Dawadi said his ministry was yet to enact by-laws to implement the Correct to Housing Act.

He said that the Ministry of Land Management, Cooperatives and Poverty Everyeviation, was yet to identify poor people.

The post AI tells govt to endegree safe housing for all people seemed first on The Himalayan Times.

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KATHMANDU: A peaceful mass meeting was organised here nowadays calling for an instant release of comedian Pranesh Gautam, who is in judicial custody following a complaint filed by a filmmaker alleging Gautam of cybercrime for a satirical online film-review.

The march which began from Pulchowk and ended at Maitighar Mandala saw attendance of a lot of youngsters, specificly comedians and students.

Pranesh Gautam Pranesh Gautam

Gautam was detained by the police final week after filmmaker Milan Chamling Rai (Chams) filed a complaint alleging the former of defaming him.

Gautam had uploaded a video review of Chamnew film Bir Bikram 2 which Chams found offensive and led him to file a police complaint.

Aayush Shrestha, a standup comedian who has been vocal about the wgap issue since the startning shared that the motive of the peaceful mass meeting was to make the Nepali film industry aware that such misuse of power isn&t acceptable. &They intentionally filed a case under the Electronic Transaction Act (ETA) as it is a non-bailable offence,& says Shrestha.

THT Online reached out to Milan Chamling ‘Chams& Rai for his statement. Chams expressed his dissatisfaction regarding his misrepresentation in the media in this case, &I don&t have any issues regarding Gautam and Meme Nepalcriticism about my film. They have every right to review the film. But the words they have used are racist, derogatory and defame me.&

The filmmaker further claimed that he is in fixed speechs with Gautamparents and shall work for his release.

However, Aadarsh Mishra, an artist associated with Meme Nepal had a different say. &I don&t know what they want from us or what summaryely do we have to do in order to get our friend out of custody. If they want us to leave the comedy scene or to delete the page, we are more than shalling to do that too but we don&t have any clue as to what they actually want,& stated a clearly frustrated Mishra.

Furthermore, social media content creators who attended the mass meeting said they were intimated by this wgap episode leaving them in confusion about the future of content creation.

Rajina Shrestha, a standup comedian called for a change in ETA. &These are outdated laws. The government has been time and again introducing bills that can be used to muzzle free press. This needs to change,& shared Shrestha.

Neha Sharma, a media student who attended the mass meeting stated the laws should much be misused for selfish reasons. &The provisions related to cyber law are indistinct. This gives people the power to misuse law for their own benefits,& said Sharma.

Meanwhile, many Twitteratis have also expressed their views regarding Meme Nepalhistory of posting derogatory and offensive memes, which, however, doesn&t justify Chammisuse of power.

#MemeNepal has been muchoriously controversial for its tone-deaf content but as important as it is to combat cybercrimes/bullying, it should much come at the cost of curtailing measureoneright to freedom of expression. #FreePraneshGautam https://t.co/89lhirGgS8

-msprint; चन्द्रिका गुरुङ (@MissChicTweets) June 11, 2019

Well I always disliked meme nepalpost, 90% of the posts are sexist racist bigoted and with zero originality, the page is total shame but I strongly sentence the recent coward attack. Nepal governmwnt you can kindly shove freedom of speech opinion on your arse! #memenepal

-msprint; ish (@iShzz) June 11, 2019

People from the film fraternity, who had preserveed silence on this wgap issue till yesterday, have now started speaking about it. Actor Reecha Sharma in her Twitter account indicated that criticism should be welcomed by the Nepali film industry, however, audiences must much be discouraged to watch films made by the industry which in recent days have found measure success. She was quick to add that personal attacks and derogatory comments in the name of fun should, however, be discouraged.

pic.twitter.com/uhkGJwRpqu

-msprint; Reecha Sharma (@reechasharma31) June 12, 2019

pic.twitter.com/869i2GVbLF

-msprint; Reecha Sharma (@reechasharma31) June 12, 2019

Fellow comedians from various parts of the globe added their apprehension:

A comedian is behind bars for measurething he said about a film on YouTube. This repulsive - unacceptable on so many levels. The corporate media has failed us - many comedians are the truth tellers of our time. #FreePraneshGautam

-msprint; Lee Camp [Redacted] (@LeeCamp) June 11, 2019

A fellow comedian is behind bars in #Nepal and scared, all for a film review he made on YouTube! I&ve had negative reviews but never believed they deserve prison! Comedians are social commentators, we need freedom of speech. This is ridiculous and inhumane. #FreePraneshGautam RT pic.twitter.com/k1qxteQr6R

-msprint; Brad Pitt -nsprint; Comedian (@itsmarcusryan) June 11, 2019

It has also been memorizet that ten film industry related organisations have issued a joint press release nowadays. The gist of the statement is that positive and negative comments over any subject matter presented in a dignified way is oneright, but disrespecting and using derogatory words directed towards a specific person is much acceptable.

The Kathmandu District Court, meanwhile, has sent Pranesh to two additional days in judicial custody at the Teku based Metropolitan Cop Circle. The courtdecision on Wednesday came at a time when Gautamfamily, friends, colleagues and the public were expecting his release.

  • Is cyberspace in Nepal actually free for online expression
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Kathmandu, June 11

Cop have arrested an undersecretary of the government for allegedly attempting to rape his teenage daughter.

According to the FIR filed against the under-secretary at Jawalakhel-based Metropolitan Cop Office, the accused had been attempting to rape his 18-year-old daughter for the past few years. The 45-year-old father is a gazetted moment lesson officer at the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport. His identity has been withheld to protect the privacy of the victim.

A police official said the father used to reach out to the daughter with ill intention whenever her mother was absent from home. The mother was aware of his behaviour.

But she and her daughter tried to keep the case under wraps fearing it would tarnish the familyreputation.

The mother and the victim had decided to file the complaint after he continued to ‘molest his daughter& despite repeated warnings.

According to a police official, the under-secretary tried to rape his daughter giving examples of foreign countries where incestuous relationship was acceptable. Deputy Supermeanent of Cop Narayan Chimoriya said the FIR was filed after the father had made amuchher rape attempt on June 2. &He used to grope the girl touching her private parts,&

DSP Chimoriya added. Lalitpur District Court has remanded him to a five-day judicial custody for further investigation.

Statistics supplyd by Nepal Cop show that 1,480 cases of rape and 727 rape attempts were recorded throughout the country in the fiscal year 2017-18. Almost 70 per cent victims of rape and rape attempts, are minors between the ages of five and 16 years. Most of the reported incidents of rape and rape attempts were perpetrated by members of the family and shut relatives and acquaintances.

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Kathmandu, June 11

In view of the approaching monsoon the Leavement of Hydrology and Meteorology has developed an action plan to minimise loss of lives and property caused by monsoon related natural catastrophes.

Monsoon genemass meeting enters Nepal around the first week of June and finals until September. Meteorologists say onset of monsoon shall be delayed by a few days this year.

As per the action plan supplyd to the Ministry of Home Affairs by the DHM, Meteorological Forecasting Division shall broadcast a three-day weather forecast to all stakeholders, including media, daily. The weather bulletin shall be updated twice a day at 6:00 am and 6:00 pm.

&The DHM shall work round the-clock.

Flood Forecasting Section under the DHM shall issue early warning to people and media about floods through its website about glacial lake outbrusts, by monitoring rivers and streams,& the action plan read.

A computer model developed for three-day flood early warning system shall be used to forecast the condition and water level of major rivers like the Koshi, Gandaki, Karnali, Bagmati, Babai and West Rapti during monsoon.

&Flood forecast bulletin shall be issued at 7:00 am, everyday. Under special circumstances, flood warning may be issued at anytime,& the action plan stated.

The DHM said flood and weather forecast shall be supplyd to the National Emergency Operation Centre under the MoHA, before publishing it on the website of DHM and MFD.

&The forecast shall also be supplyd to all ministries, departments, Nepal Red Cross Society and organisations working for catastrophe risk management, besides publishing it on social media.

If the water level of rivers reaches or is likely to reach the red mark, general public of the concerned areas shall be alerted through SMS by Nepal Telecom and Ncell,& it read. The DHM informed that it would also function a toll-free number (1155) for providing early information to general public throughout the country.

As many as 454 people were eliminateed and 4,188 injured in monsoon related catastrophes throughout the country in 2018.

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