Kathmandu: The Global Campaign for the Release of Political Prisoners in Bhutan (GCRPPB), a Hague-based human rights organization, has welcomed the statement by Human Rights Watch (HRW) regarding the release of political prisoners in Bhutan.
Ram Karki, the global coordinator of the organization (who was also involved with the Human Rights Watch for this report) said that it is the responsibility of the global community to stand in favor of justice and rights of political prisoners in Bhutan.
“We believe that other global human rights organizations such as Amnesty International, UN Human Rights Council and others will also come forward to ensure that justice is not denied to the political prisoners in Bhutan,” Karki told Nepal Live Today from The Hague.
On Tuesday, the Human Rights Watch published a statement urging the Bhutanese government to end convictions of several dozen political prisoners in Bhutan.
The political prisoners ‘have been imprisoned for decade following unfair trials and alleged torture’, mentions the statement. “While the total number of political prisoners in Bhutan remains unknown, Human Rights Watch collected information relating to 37 current prisoners who were first detained between 1990 and 2010.”
The report further states, “Most of them are held separately from other prisoners, in poor conditions, with many suffering physical or psychosocial (mental health) ailments, and are denied regular communication with their families.”
Bhutan government has handled the issue of political prisoners in an opaque manner. Now is the time that international human rights organizations should put pressure on the Bhutanese government to curtail further torture and unfair treatment, Karki said.
“Bhutan government should allow international communities and media to report the reality of the political prisoners,” he said. “The truth and the ground reality of political prisoners are yet to be uncovered as Bhutan has kept them in isolation.”
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