Kathmandu, June 13

Prime Minister Dr Baburam Bhattarai Wednesday said that the government had given top priority to protection and promotion of human rights in the country.

The Prime Minister said this while addressing the programme organized to mark 12th anniversary of National Human Rights Commission (NHRC).

Saying that citizens basic human rights may not be ensured until the nation got rid of political transition, he said that the government was effortful to end existing political instability.

The Prime Minister said that the country would find a way out from current deadlock through political consensus. He explained that declaration of election for Nov 22 after the dissolution of the CA was to prevent further prolongation of transition.

Prime Minister Dr Bhattarai informed that the government was working as per the recommendation of the NHRC. He said that the government was positive to implement international declaration on

human rights as a party to it. Saying that democracy was the basic principle of human rights, he said that the government was effortful to institutionalize it.

The prime Minister said that the government provided 95 million rupees to the victims in the current fiscal year as per the recommendation of the NHRC. He said the government was working to end violence against women.

Kedar Nath Upadhya, NHRC chairman, said that registration of complaints in the NHRC has gradually decreased for the last two or three years. He said that since its inception, the NHRC received 9221 complaints till April and it finalized 3664 of them.

Residential representative of UNDP, Robert Piper, viewed that NHRC was unable to work efficiently due to lack of sufficient manpower although the people had great expectation from it.

Bishal Khanal, NHRC secretary, complained that the government had delayed in fulfilling the vacant posts while the NHRC was working with 33 per cent of the total allocated quota.