Women of Nepal

Mandira Sharma

Advocate and Director of Advocacy Forum

Born in June 1972 in Baglung district

In the later stages of the 10-year armed conflict Nepal became the country with the worst record of enforced disappearance, both by the state and by the rebels (Maoists). Mandira Sharma was one of few lawyers who advocated and supported the families of those victims who had become completely helpless. During the period when basic human rights were infringed by the royal government, Mandira and her colleagues helped bring many of those cases to justice and contributed much to raise this issue on both a national and international level.   

When she was a child, Mandira had a dream to become a nurse so she could help others and become independent. But in her village in Baglung district a professional training course to become a nurse was not available, so her mother, who she describes as a "by-born leader", though uneducated, encouraged her to be a lawyer.

After completing her intermediate level at Banglung Campus in 1991 she wanted to come to Kathmandu to complete further studies; however her father did not allow her to go alone. Instead, her parents proposed she marry a man from the capital. Her desire for study was so strong she accepted her parents' proposal and got married at the age of seventeen. Once she arrived at the capital, Mandira joined the Nepal Law Campus. She went to college at night time and worked as a volunteer for an NGO called CIVICT (the Center for Victims of Torture) during the day. She was the only woman student in her night class and still remembers how difficult it was for her and her husband Ram Pokhrel to maintain their livelihood in Kathmandu in those days.

Mandira was inspired by the story of her uncle who was tortured by police while in custody during the 1990 People's Movement, becoming her motivation to begin working in the field of human rights for those in custody. CIVICT was the only organization which was working in this field in Nepal. Owing to CIVICT's works, the Torture Compensation Law came into existence in 1995.

Mandira worked for CIVICT for 10 years and collected a large number of cases of torture victims. She felt she should not focus her work only on supporting victims, but also work towards the prevention and control of torture inside custodies and prisons. For that purpose she managed a rehabilitation program for women prisoners and their children for three years from 1996. In this program she conducted surveys on prisoners in 26 prisons, which shocked her as she knew torture was quite common for those held in custody.
On getting a scholarship from the British Council in 1999, Mandira went to England to obtain an LLM (Masters in Law) in human rights law from the Law University of Essex in Colchester. During her two-year stay she had the chance to work as an intern in a human rights organization, which helped broaden her knowledge on issues relating to human rights and justice. After completing her LLM she returned to Nepal and established an NGO named the 'Advocacy Forum' in 2001. Being equipped with more practical knowledge and ideas on how to relate human rights violation cases in Nepal with the international community, she returned back to her old field - prisoners. It was a time when the number of cases of violation against human rights in Nepal was rapidly increasing as the Maoist armed conflict became more intensive.  

Mandira and her six colleagues of the Advocacy Forum began to visit custodies to monitor the conditions. It was a difficult time for them as administration didn't allow them to meet prisoners and detainees due to the State of Emergency. But by claiming legal right of prisoners to consult with their lawyers, they gradually established an approach to prisons and detention centers. She and her colleagues tried to document whatever they saw there. While monitoring the jails in Morang, Banke and Kathmandu districts they came to know that the situation inside custodies was getting more terrible by the day as the conflict between Maoists and the state worsened.

Mandira and her colleagues devoted themselves to bringing about change inside custody. They set up a legal counsel for detainees with the purpose of helping their cases proceed in the court in a timely fashion. They even went to villages to help local police officers collect evidence of cases that they were involved in. They documented each case in detail and exposed them with stakeholders, such as police officers, district administration officers and lawyers through various interaction and awareness programs.

They also worked hard to amend the Legal Aid Act and began to apply pressure on the government to add a clause in the Act that detainees as well as prisoners be offered counsel and be accompanied by a lawyer during all court proceedings. Owing to her initiation and continuous pressure the amendment bill was approved.

After the State of Emergency was declared in November 2001, more and more cases of human rights violation, particularly illegal detentions, extra-judicial killings and enforced disappearances by the side of the state security forces, arose. Mandira and her colleagues visited places such as Bardiya, Banke, Dang, Baglung and Morang districts where the situation of conflict was more serious, to collect countless cases of human rights violation in the fields. They even visited places where clashes between Maoists and security forces occurred in order to get the facts on what actually happened. 

As few organizations were working on such issues during the conflict period, Mandira and her colleagues had to face a lot of difficulties. They knew that a number of detainees were kept illegally in barracks of the Royal Nepal Army but had no access to them as the army tried to hide such cases.  

Detainees' stories Mandira brought to public attention  illustrate a whole sequence of illegal practices and human rights violation - neglecting habeas corpus, various kinds of torture, falsified evidence, isolation from families, and lack of information about the right to counsel. For women detainees especially, the abuse suffered was compounded by sexual harassment and inadequate hygiene provisions which could not be offset by family care due to the detainee's isolation.

It was even more difficult to publicize those cases under the Emergency situation. So if officials refused to stop protracted detention or torture, Mandira used the United Nations Human Rights mechanism and sought help from international human rights organizations. Mandira's group started helping family members of detainees to file the cases in court, but most families were afraid to go through the legal process in case they themselves were targeted by security forces. So they filed the cases in the name of the Advocacy Forum later on.

But they continued to face problems, even with the courts. Mandira said, "The cases we had filed were ignored by the courts and they declined to address for detainees. In those days courts were also under pressure from the government and the security forces and didn't want to deal such controversial cases." But they never gave up and continued to challenge the courts through different means.

One day the situation reached such an intensity that a judge in Nepalgunj asked Mandira's colleague not to come up with such lawsuits. So they decided to take the cases to the Supreme Court. Mandira said, "The situation was the same even in Supreme Court as it tried to deny the entertainment of such cases." Mandira and her colleagues then took a strategy of filing at least 10 cases a day and shared all of these with national and international human rights organizations, including those working on enforced disappearances, and the media as well. Their strategy worked to some extent, though not in all cases.

After their continuous efforts, the Supreme Court started to open cases of victims who were detained and then disappeared by state security forces, but only those with enough evidence and witnesses. During the later half of the conflict period, Nepal had the worst record of human rights violation, which was discussed even in the Senate of the United States as the American government was providing military support to Nepal. Mandira and her colleagues contributed a lot to make human rights situations in Nepal public in international circles. When she heard Nepal's issues had never been a topic of discussion in Geneva in 2002 in a meeting of Human Rights Commission of United Nations, Mandira started sending documents of each case they had collected to various international forums in order to draw more attention from the international community.

During the conflict period, receiving threats became a daily affair for Mandira. In 2004, she was called to the Royal Nepal Army's head office where army officers showed her a pile of papers she had filed and asked her not to give them any trouble. The office of the Advocacy Forum was put under surveillance and army personnel came into their office to question staff. The most difficult time was after the former king took power and formed a new government under his own leadership in February 2005. The situation was so critical they had to hide their documents in their office.

Despite all the difficulties, Mandira and her colleagues have collected more than eight thousand cases on illegal detention, extra-judicial killings, sexual violations, enforced disappearances, child soldiers and so on. But the biggest challenge for them and the victims is no one who is obviously guilty has been arrested. Impunity has become the culture of Nepal and there is little hope for victims to get justice.

As the state itself was involved in violating human rights Mandira has doubts about how victims can get justice. She recalls the case of Maina Sunuwar who died under torture at the RNA barracks in Panchkal on 17 February, 2004.

When Maina's mother, Devi, initially went to search for her daughter, the army denied any involvement. Devi continued to campaign for truth and justice. Under sustained pressure, the army conducted an internal inquiry, resulting in a court martial decision in September 2005. However, it only found those involved guilty of minor offences and sentenced them to six months imprisonment. Having spent time confined to the army barracks they were then set free.

"Maina is one of thousands of people who were tortured and murdered where those responsible remain free. Why should this be? If our justice system cannot help these people who continue to suffer so much, how can we be assured that we are safe? All these crimes must be proactively investigated by an independent authority. There must be no exceptions and punishments must fit the crime," said Mandira.

She added, "Reforming the legal system is essential in Nepal to give justice to the conflict victims. For that the political will is important to address past issues of human rights violation. But even the present government is indifferent to address such issues." Through her organization Mandira is trying to unite conflict victims from around the country to pressure the government.

Mandira and her colleagues are continuously monitoring the custody, providing free legal services and working for the security sector reformation to prevent torture even now. They work with victims and provide information on their rights. They are lobbying to introduce a Disappearance Act, as well as a Truth and Reconciliation Act, and are also raising their voices on an international level and working as a watchdog for human rights assurance in Nepal.

Mandira was awarded the Human Rights Watch's highest honor in November 2006 for struggling to ensure peace talks address the needs and demands of the Nepali people, not just their political leaders.

Written by Bidhya Chapagain