“Where are they ???”

photoes taken at Biratnagar- saturday morning

“Where are they ???”

COCAP Campaign for the Disappeared – Trans-Nepal Cycle Ride 2008


1. Overview

On 21st November 2006, the seven parties and the Maoist finally signed a peace agreement, officially ending 11 years of insurgency in Nepal. This peace agreement (Comprehensive Peace Accord, CPA) included significant human rights commitments and a pledge to ending impunity for human rights abuses. It further committed to publicise the whereabouts of victims of enforced disappearances within 60 days.
However, more than one year after the concluding of the historic CPA, the status and whereabouts of the vast majority of individuals disappeared in the context of counter-insurgency measures by security forces are still to be made public.
Against the relative neglect of the issue of disappearances in the current context, COCAP has decided to launch a new campaign in order to pressurise the concerned authorities to publicise the whereabouts of disappeared citizens, collect, and register formerly undisclosed cases of disappearances .
In particular, the campaign aims to pressurize the concerned parties to:

• Publicize the whereabouts of the disappeared as soon as possible
• Ensure the participation of families of the disappeared, members of civil society, human rights organisations, journalists, and other professionals in the drafting of bills relating to disappearances and the establishment of a truth and reconciliation commission
• Ratify the International Convention for the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearances
• Provide the relief and reasonable compensation for the victim and family of disappearance
• Bring persons responsible within the purview of the law

This campaign will begin with a 30 day long cycle rally, involving 15 volunteers of COCAP travelling from the Mechi to the Mahakali and actively engaging with the families affected by disappearances across the breadth of the country. This campaign will start on 15th January 2008.
As in the past, COCAP will not seek funding from any agency, but will mobilise local resources to carry out these activities, ensuring local ownership of a campaign which is both urgent and touches the heart of people from across the nation.
2. Rationale
The rationale for the campaign is mounting evidence that, in spite of the seriousness of the issue of disappearances, there is relatively little political will to engage with the matter. Indeed, to date, over 1000 individuals have been registered as ‘disappeared’ with various organisations in Nepal, but their whereabouts are still unknown. On several occasions in the past has the subject of disappearances been a stumbling block in negotiations among the political forces in the country, leading most notably, in September 2007, to the withdrawal of Maoists from government.
COCAP is concerned that disappearances will continue to act as an obstacle to sustainable peace and is in no doubt that the time has come to intensify pressure on concerned authorities to pay more attention to the question of disappearances.

At present, around half a dozen organisations are involved in seeking out and registering disappearances. However, these organisations have remained largely inaccessible to the majority of people and families affected by disappearances, for a variety of reasons. COCAP’s methodology for this campaign is meant to overcome this unfortunate state of affairs.

3. Methodology

Fifteen volunteers from COCAP will cycle continually for 30 days, travelling across the breadth of Nepal along the route detailed in the following page. The table below also includes details of the activities to be carried out along the way.