Real Rights Now is an online portal pushing for the implementation of the decisions (or “Views”) of Human Rights Committee (HRC) relating to cases of gross human rights violations in Nepal. It indexes all the cases addressed by the HRC and keeps an update of their implementation status.
This portal serves as a central point of reference – in both Nepali and English – on the Views of the Human Rights Committee concerning Nepal, their implementation status, and background information to push for further progress and the realisation of victims’ rights.
In a collaborative effort to ensure victims receive the redress to which they are entitled under international law, the partner organisations- TRIAL International, Advocacy Forum, REDRESS and Juri-Nepal, – worked together on a number of different activities, in addition to Real Rights Now. These included trying to bring together relevant government officials to understand and define their responsibilities, arranging meetings between victims and government officials, media outreach, holding meetings to update the Human Rights Committee and publishing a policy paper on compensation. The organizations have been continuing their activities on the implementation of the decisions of the HRC. The ‘Human Rights and Justice Centre’ since January 2017 has joined in with TRIAL International on the conduction of such activities.
The long-term aims of the Real Rights Now portal are:
Awareness: Real Rights Now seeks to raise awareness about the individual complaints procedure before the HRC, and the cases that have been brought before it. The content is intended to assist journalists, the public and Nepali lawyers to better understand the proceedings before the HRC, as well as the nature and impact that such a mechanism may have more generally, bearing in mind that not all cases of gross human rights violations – and in fact only a bare minimum – will be brought before this mechanism.
Advocacy: In an effort to increase the urgency in delivering justice to the victims and their families, Real Rights Now hopes to facilitate advocacy through the media and dialogue with Nepalese authorities and government officials and to improve knowledge of the individual cases that have been litigated to date.