10 July 2022, Kathmandu
Indigenous Newar communities – affected by the Kathmandu-Terai/Madhesh Fast Track (Expressway) Project and other ongoing or planned infrastructure and urbanization projects in historical settlements of Khokana and Bungamati in the south of Nepal’s capital city, Kathmandu – have called on four UN mechanisms in Geneva to take follow up actions for safeguarding their rights against the continued serious threats of displacement of the communities, violations of their land and resource rights as well as cultural rights and other impacts on them due to the ill-planned projects.
In separate letters emailed today to the UN Special Rapporteurs on the rights of indigenous peoples, on the right to adequate housing and on the situation of human rights defenders as well as the Working Group on business and human rights, two local groups (Janasarokar Samiti of Khokana and Bungamati) representing the affected communities have urged the UN mechanisms to jointly examine the information submitted and undertake follow up correspondence with the Government of Nepal to protect and promote the rights of the indigenous communities in the context of those projects. As stated in the letters, besides the Fast Track Expressway, other ongoing or planned projects, including Bagmati River Basin Improvement Project (Bagmati Corridor), Kathmandu Outer Ring Road and Thankot-Bhaktapur Transmission Line Project and one of the four “Smart Cities” proposed in Kathmandu valley, will entirely displace the indigenous communities from the historical settlements. Asian Development Bank has directly or indirectly supported many of those projects.
On 30 March 2021, the UN mechanisms had sent a joint allegation letter to the Government of Nepal calling attention to the allegations to the violations of the rights of the communities due to the construction of Terai/Madhesh Fast Track Expressway, among other things and seeking response from the Government on the allegations. After much delay, the Government, on 31 May 2021, had submitted a delayed reply to the letter that the local groups have deemed “utterly unsatisfactory and greatly concerning” in a public statement on 29 June the same year. In the letters to the UN mechanisms, the groups have again strongly condemned the Government for providing information that is worryingly misleading and false.
The groups have reasserted that the Fast Track alignment passes through their cultural and religious sites in Khokana and Bungamati despite the Government claimed otherwise. Similarly, they have reiterated that the affected communities have not agreed to the acquisition of our lands for the construction of the Fast Track and they have not been handed over to the army as claimed by the Government in its reply. They have also called for immediate removal of the physical structure of the military camp and withdrawal of army from their lands. The groups assert that the communities do not provide their consent for the Fast Track or the other projects in the lands and demand that the entry point of the Fast Track be relocated from our lands without any delay.
Further, the groups have informed that the affected communities had written to Nepal’s Ministry of Environment called for the supplementary Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) of the Fast Track highway undertaken in 2021 to be scrapped altogether as it does not address their demand. The Ministry had acknowledged their letter, however the supplementary EIA was approved without consulting with us – let alone making any effort towards addressing their demand. They have also restated their demand to the Supreme Court to immediately adjudicate on their writ petitions against the Fast Track and other projects in their lands to avoid delayed justice that can equate to injustice upon them.
Earlier, in 2020, the groups had submitted information to the UN mechanisms about violations of the rights of the indigenous communities in Khokana and Bungamati calling for their attention and necessary actions. They had also sent letters to the UN mechanisms country offices of the International Labour Organization (ILO), UNESCO and the UN in Kathmandu. The representative of those offices had also undertaken field visits to Khokana and Bungamati to understand the concerns of the communities. However, the Government has not responded positively to the correspondence from those offices to facilitate a meaningful dialogue with the affected communities.
Over the years, the Khokana and Bungamati locals have organized various gatherings, protests and demonstrations to express their opposition to the various projects Those protests and demonstrations have often been responded with brutal police repression. In July 2020, a clash erupted between protestors and police when the authorities intervened in a “paddy transplantation protest” organized in Khokana at the proposed zero point of the Fast Track. Over a dozen protestors were injured when police lobbed tear gas shells and charged batons while four police personnel were also injured. The local groups have organized their paddy plantation protest every year since.
Even during the Covid-19 pandemic-induced lockdowns, the locals had to engage on an almost daily basis in heated arguments with the sub-contractors of the Fast Track Expressway who seek to undertake construction in private & communal lands of the communities amidst prohibitory orders for the general public to stay indoors due to Covid-19 pandemic.
In February 2020, more than fifty affected locals and communities’ representatives of Khokana and Bungamati had filed a writ petition at Nepal’s Supreme Court calling for the protection of the historical settlements and the communities therein against the multiple “development” projects. However, the Court has repeatedly postponed hearings on the petition while the construction of the Fast Track Project progresses continuously. In their letters to the Special Rapporteurs, the groups have alleged violations of their rights guaranteed in national and international laws, including the ILO Convention 169 and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples that apply to Nepal.
Click here to read the letter submitted by the groups to the Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, among other mechanisms, for more information.
For further details or inquiries, contact Janasarokar Samiti, Khokana at khokanajanasarokarsamiti@gmail.com.