Nepal may be associated with Mount Everest and trekking holidays, but it leads the world in the number of government-sanctioned 'disappearances' recorded by the United Nations (UN), an award-winning Nepalese lawyer has told the Gazette.


Mandira Sharma, who this month received a Human Rights Defender award from international monitor Human Rights Watch (HRW), said the country consistently tops the tables of enforced and involuntary disappearances drawn up by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). These are cases where investigation by the OHCHR has shown the official involvement of the police, army or other state security organisation in the abduction of individuals who subsequently become untraceable.



Ms Sharma said: 'The decade-long Maoist insurgency cost thousands of lives, with hundreds of people tortured, detained or "disappeared". Even now that peace has returned, the culture of impunity persists.'



Arnold Tsunga, executive director of Zimbabwean Lawyers for Human Rights, also received a HRW award.



Jonathan Rayner