Nepal: Unresolved property issues and IDP policy hiatus undermine search for durable solutions

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31 December 2012

More than six years after the government and Maoist rebels ended their decade-long armed conflict, the peace process remains largely incomplete. Widespread impunity for perpetrators of human rights violations committed during the conflict, endless political bickering, corruption and the government’s relative absence from rural areas has largely undermined state legitimacy.

Nearly all IDPs have returned, but an undetermined number, believed to be in the thousands, have been unable or unwilling to go back to their places of origin, mainly as a result of unresolved land and property issues and security concerns. Land expropriated by the Maoists has often been sold or given to landless or tenant farmers. The sustainability of returns has often been undermined by the absence of state services and a lack of livelihood assistance. Assistance provided by the government
to IDPs since 2007 has mainly focused on helping them return by covering their transportation costs.

Most IDPs no longer have assistance needs related to their displacement as they have managed to integrate locally, mainly in urban centres and cities. Some, however, particularly women and children, have struggled to find proper accommodation and access basic services. They are also more likely to be exposed to a range of threats including exploitation and sexual violence.

Since 2007, episodes of violence from separatist and criminal groups in central Terai, the region south of the Himalayan foothills, have led to the forced displacement of thousands of people. Both hill-dwelling Pahadis and their wealthier Madhesi counterparts on the plains have been affected, with most reported to have moved to Hetauda, Chitwan district and Kathmandu.

Nepal: Government launches plan for children affected by conflict (25 March 2011)

The Nepal government announced last week that children affected by the Maoist insurgency between 1996 and 2006 would soon benefit from a three-year rehabilitation programme. After an initial data-gathering phase to assess the scale of the problem and identify needs, the National Plan of Action (NPA) for the Rehabilitation and Reintegration of Children Affected by Armed Conflict will provide child combatants, displaced children and those who lost their parents with improved access to education, health and psychological care, and vocational skills training. The Ministry of Peace and Reconstruction (MoPR) will implement the plan, while the Prime Minister’s Office, cabinet ministers, the Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare and an unnamed civil society group will all monitor its progress. The MoPR will encourage NGOs to take part in the programme.

Although there are no reliable figures, it is believed that the conflict left at least 40,000 children displaced. In 2009, a children’s rights group estimated their number at nearly 10,000. In 2010, some 50,000 people displaced by the conflict remained unwiling or unable to go home. Between 2007 and 2010, the MoPR provided a lump sum of Npr.2,400 ($34) as “education assistance” to almost 4,800 children.

As of early 2012, it was estimated that around 50,000 Nepalese displaced between 1996 and 2006 remained unable or unwilling to return to their homes due to unresolved land and property issues, insecurity and lack of assistance. This does not include several thousand people displaced by inter-communal violence and insecurity since 2007 in the central and eastern Terai (the region south of the Himalayan foothills), a group largely ignored by both the government and international humanitarian organisations. Displacement in Nepal has largely followed a rural-urban pattern, with most people moving in small groups to seek refuge with friends and relatives in the main towns and cities where most IDPs remain. (...)

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^{11 April 2012}