Please - Odhikar

ecourses, a strong commitment of the government and political and bureaucratic will, practices
often fail to follow the domestic legislation. Section 9 of Nepal's Treaty Act, gives precedence to
provisions of international treaties ratified by Nepal over domestic laws, Nepalese law fails to
cover many provisions laid out in the constitution and international instruments ratified by
Nepal.
The Constitution of Nepal has emphasized to guarantee the basic human rights to every citizen
as the preamble of the Constitution reads " AND WHEREAS, it is expedient to promulgate and
enforce this Constitution, made with the widest possible participation of the Nepalese people, to
guarantee basic human rights to every citizen of Nepal". By virtue of this constitutional
guarantee, twenty-three numbers of different groups, associations and forums related to human
rights are registered. One of their objectives relates to watch whether an accused or a person
suspected for crimes is ill-treated or they are deprived of exercising the fundamental rights,
prescribed by the constitutional provisions. They are found standing for the betterment of the
accused as well as the convicted criminals.
From left to right: Shahed Zia from Pakistan, Subodh Pyakurel from Nepal, Buddhadev Chowdhury from India,
Saeed-ur Rehman from Pakistan and Rukshan Fernando from Sri Lanka
The situation of crime victims in Nepal seems deplorable and pathetic to an inexplicable extent,
despite constitutional guarantees and legal provisions for the protection of human rights of the
vulnerable. As such, the country's justice system is in dire need of improvement through
necessary changes in legislature. But this would not be possible unless the legislation is
amended to help the enactment of the "Victim and Witness Protection Act" with incorporation of
the victim-focused justice components and establishment of the "Camera Court". Our society,
though more dynamic than ever before, is not proactive in respect of fighting out social evils.
The victim justice system would not improve without a change in social attitude towards the
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