NEPAL: Stop Sexual Assault on Tibetan Women, TWA tells Nepal

Tibetan Women's Association (TWA), the largest women's organisation in exile submitted a report on the treatment of Tibetan women in Nepal to a UN body that monitors women's right worldwide.

In a release Tuesday, TWA said that the report was presented at the ongoing 49th session of the United Nations Convention for the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in New York.

The ten-page report was submitted in response to Nepal's combined fourth and fifth periodic report at the CEDAW which failed to mention the tiring circumstances Tibetan women in Nepal face.

“The report deals extensively with the rights of female refugees in Nepal, particularly the treatment of Tibetan women in Nepal by Nepali police during arrest”, TWA said in the release while reprimanding Nepal for infringing the stipulations of the Convention which guarantee basic human rights, fundamental freedoms, and equality between men and women.

In its report, TWA issued four recommendations to the Government of Nepal, voicing its strong opposition to the deportation of Tibetans and urging for an end to arbitrary and preventive arrests.

The Nepal government must “issue orders to all police officers to cease sexual assaults on female protesters and conduct investigations into sexual assaults on protesters”, TWA said in its report.

TWA President Kirti Dolkar Lhamo in the release expressed her complete faith in the United Nations and its convention for the protection of Women's rights.

“CEDAW is the strongest avenue to report the true status of Tibetan women as oppressed citizens in Tibet and as threatened refugees in host countries (in this case, Nepal) that employs an unnecessary hard-line policy.”

The UN General Assembly adopted the CEDAW Convention on December 19, 1979. CEDAW is one of the most highly ratified international human rights conventions, having the support of 186 States parties.