US embassy cable - 04KATHMANDU326

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 KATHMANDU 000326 
 
SIPDIS 
 
NOFORN 
 
STATE FOR SA/INS AND DRL 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/19/2014 
TAGS: PHUM, PREL, PGOV, NP, UN, Human Rights 
SUBJECT: NEPAL:  UN HUMAN RIGHTS OFFICIAL PLEDGES CLOSER 
COMMUNICATION WITH GON AND US 
 
REF: KATHMANDU 310 
 
Classified By: AMB. MICHAEL E. MALINOWSKI.  REASON:  1.5 (B,D). 
 
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SUMMARY 
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1.  (C/NF) In a February 17 meeting with the Ambassador, 
Gianni Magazzeni, Geographic Teams leader from the UN Office 
of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), 
acknowledged that a UN-proposed hman rights accord will 
likely face resistance from the Government of Nepal (GON) 
unless the UN does a much better job of persuading the GON of 
the merits of the accord.  Magazzeni indicated that the OHCHR 
"needs to get down to the nuts and bolts" of basic monitoring 
with the National Human Rights Commission, and "leave the 
human rights accord aside" for the time being.  The 
Ambassador agreed with Magazzeni on the need for technical 
support to strengthen the National Human Rights Commission. 
In a separate conversation, Magazzeni confided to the 
Ambassador that the local OHCHR representative, who has not 
attempted to maintain contact with either the GON or the 
Embassy, was viewed as an "unmitigated disaster" by Geneva 
and was being "fired."  End summary. 
 
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OHCHR REDIRECTING EFFORTS ON 
NATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION 
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2.  (U) On February 17 Gianni Magazzeni, Geographic Teams 
leader from the UN OFfice of the High Commissioner for Human 
Rights (OHCHR), called on the Ambassador to enlist USG 
support for a UN proposal to provide technical assistance to 
Nepal's National Human Rights Commission (NHRC).  Magazzeni 
was accompanied by Matthew Kahane, UNDP Resident 
Representative, and Nicholas Howen, OHCHR regional 
representative. 
 
3.  (C)  Magazzeni opened the conversation by suggesting that 
the OHCHR is refocusing its priorities on providing technical 
assistance to the NHRC, rather than on persuading the 
Government of Nepal (GON) and the Maoists to sign a draft 
human rights accord.  (Note:  UN-provided assistance to the 
NHRC was originally proposed as a follow-on to the signing of 
the human rights accord, which was drafted during the 2003 
ceasefire.  The NHRC, assisted by the UN, was supposed to 
monitor both parties' compliance with the terms of the 
accord.  Neither the Maoists nor the GON has signed the 
accord.  End note.)  Whether or not the accord ultimately is 
signed by both parties--and Magazzeni indicated substantial 
doubt that it would be in the near term--the NHRC needs 
international support to fulfill its constitutional mandate 
and become an impartial, effective and reliable human rights 
monitoring body.  Strengthening the autonomous NHRC will 
reinforce the message that responsibility for human rights is 
not limited to one party in the conflict, while underscoring 
that the battle against terrorism cannot be won by 
sacrificing respect for human rights, he said.  The subject 
of human rights has, unfortunately, become "very politically 
loaded here," Magazzeni acknowledged, so the OHCHR "needs to 
get down to the nuts and bolts" of basic monitoring with the 
NHRC, and "leave the human rights accord aside" for the time 
being.  To this end, the OHCHR is proposing a 
three-to-six-month intervention to provide such basic 
technical assistance to the NHRC, for which, he concluded, 
the UN hopes to count on political and financial assistance 
from the USG. 
 
4.  (C) The Ambassador acknowledged US Mission concerns with 
the lack of impartiality in the NHRC, adding that the body 
had been virtually paralyzed by internal political and 
personal rivalries among its members.  Nonetheless, the USG 
has been looking for ways to support and improve the NHRC and 
help it fulfill its constitutional role of independently 
monitoring the human rights situation, he said. 
 
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MORE CONTACT NEEDED WITH GON 
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5.  (C)  The Ambassador noted that John Bevan, the OHCHR's 
local representative, had not done a good job of securing GON 
support for either the human rights accord or the proposed 
assistance to the NHRC (Reftel).  As a result, the GON does 
not understand the benefit of signing the accord but views it 
instead as a potential liability.  In particular, the UN 
should make a concerted effort to cultivate better contacts 
among the Royal Nepal Army (RNA), the Ambassador suggested, 
adding that individual officers' and soldiers' experiences in 
UN Peacekeeping Operations had helped sensitize them to human 
rights issues.  The Embassy uses its frequent meetings with 
the RNA leadership to emphasize the need to respect human 
rights, he said.  Magazzeni acknowledged that OHCHR efforts 
had been wanting in this area.  UNDP ResRep Kahane responded 
that UN officials in Kathmandu should do more to exploit the 
"natural entree" that RNA participation in UNPKO offers the 
UN. 
 
6.  (C)  The Ambassador also noted that the local OHCHR 
representative had made no effort to brief the Embassy on 
either the accord or the proposed assistance for the NHRC. 
Having just recently examined the revised draft accord--a 
copy of which the Embassy obtained from the British Embassy, 
rather than the OHCHR itself--the Ambassador said he had 
several questions.  OHCHR regional representative Howen 
offered to meet with poloff to discuss these concerns. 
 
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CHANGING OF THE GUARD 
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7.  (C/NF) In a separate encounter with the Ambassador at a 
social event, Magazzeni described OHCHR's local 
representative as an "unmitigated disaster," acknowledging 
that he had spent nearly all of his time interacting with 
NGOs and sympathetic EU missions, to the exclusion of the 
GON, the media, the security forces and the broader 
diplomatic community.  Magazzeni said the OHCHR 
representative will be "fired" soon and replaced by a new 
team, headed by an experienced and well-regarded Australian 
national, that will work more closely with both the GON and 
the U.S. 
 
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COMMENT 
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8.  (C/NF) With no leverage over the Maoists to enforce 
compliance and no effort to persuade the GON of the benefits 
of signing, the human rights community here has long 
recognized that hopes that either party would sign the human 
rights accord were moribund well before the end of the 
ceasefire.  EU and UN proponents of the accord have done 
nothing to allay GON suspicions that the document would be 
little more than a vehicle for further international 
criticism of its human rights record that exerted no 
commensurate pressure on the Maoists.  We welcome OHCHR's 
decision to recast its efforts in Nepal toward strengthening 
the woefully inadequate NHRC.  Unfortunately, the activities 
of OHCHR's local representative in Kathmandu may have tainted 
GON perceptions of OHCHR as a neutral, independent body 
capable of instilling such virtues in the NHRC.  We are 
encouraged to hear that OHCHR in Geneva seems to be taking 
steps to address this.  We endorse USG political and 
financial support of OHCHR's initiative to strengthen the 
NHRC. 
MALINOWSKI