COCAP aims to provide a common space for its members, volunteers and friends to collectively engage in the pursuit of peace, human rights and justice in Nepal. It organises national/regional level campaigns and programs on the issues of conflict transformation and peacebuilding, transitional justice and social security in coordination with its member organisations and other like-minded organisations.

The mission of COCAP is to contribute to the promotion of a culture of peace and justice in Nepal. It seeks to acheive this through a network of socially committed and financially transparent civil society organisations from Nepal and undertaking effective and coordinated initiatives for conflict transformation and just peacebuilding.

Campaigners in a sit-in in front of UML party Office

COCAP has led a number of campaigns and conferences including:

• Citizens’ Initiative for Future: a national conference on policy advocacy;
• Secretariat to Nationwide Youth Pressure Campaign for Constitution Making (NYPCCM): a campaign to put pressure on the creation of a constitution;
• Conflict Victim Women and Access to Justice: National Conference;
• Campaign for the Disappeared – Trans-Nepal Cycle Ride.

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Amoung its many activities, JMC operates a radio station – Radio Jagaran 93.6 MHz in Rupandehi district – a dalit Research and Resource Center, a TV show – ‘Dalan’ – and an e-newsletter.

Programmes

Face-to-Face interaction programme
The face-to-face programme brings together people from different walks of life and organises discussions on issues affecting the dalit community. The conclusions and recommendations are then sent to policy makers, politicians, dalit and non-dalit advocates and civil society.

Radio programs
A half hour radio show is produced in Kathmandu and broadcasted through 15 different FM stations around Nepal. The radio programs includes issues affecting the dalit community, caste-based discrimination cases, local level initiatives and campaigns against caste discrimination and community mobilisation for dalits’ improvment in Nepal.

Outcomes:

• Participants’ knowledge about issues of caste, human rights and the cultural diversity of Nepal has been enhanced and improved through the Face-to-Face programme;
• The national issues, voices and agendas of dalits have been broadcasted through 15 FM stations across Nepal.

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Through their ‘Peace and Reconciliation Programme’, Jagaran Nepal works with conflict-affected women and children, providing them with counselling, empowerment support and education. The programme has led to the establishment of a number of women’s peace groups and has so far directly helped 397 conflict-affected children to continue their studies.

Beside this, Jagaran Nepal has been conducting other major programs related to women and peace, which have included the following activities:

• A signature campaign among the Constituent Assembly (CA) members and civil society for ensuring at least 33% female representation in key portfolios and positions of state;
• Submission of a four-point memorandum along with over 300 signatures to the Chairperson of Constituent Assembly to put pressure on the government to select a women as the vice-chairperson of the CA and ensure at least 33% women’s involvement at all state mechanisms;
• Policy-level awareness on different issues in the participation of women CA members;
• 10 years vision (2008-18) for women rights was set through the organisations of a two-day national workshop;
• An appeal to the CPN-UML party for ensuring at least 33% women’s representation and inclusive proportional participation at its new central committee to be formed after 8^th General Assembly of the party;
• Participated actively in the ‘Sit-in’ programme organised by the civil society to bring about an immediate solution to political instability in Nepal.

Outcomes

• More than 300 signatures were collected and memorandum submitted from CA members and civil society that eventually created pressure to select a woman as the vice-chairperson of the CA;
• Through 8^th General Assembly of CPN-UML 33% women members has been ensured;
• Organisation of the Civic Dharna (Sit-in) and participation could give a meaningful message to the political parties on the importance of the consensus;
• Supported around 150 conflict affected girls to continue their school education; and
• Establishment of resource centre with books and materials on women, good governance, sustainable peace and gender equality.

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A meeting organised by the Human Rights Alliance

Objectives:

• Sensitise, advocate, and launch programs for the protection, promotion, and enjoyment of human rights and social justice in a fearless environment;
• Consolidate human rights and social justice movement at the grass-root levels through social mobilisation;
• Monitor and evaluate the observance of all human right instruments ratified by Nepal;
• Promote and/or create academic institutions for human rights and development studies;
• Work towards the institutional development of a social justice system that respects human rights in all aspects of development, and distribution of different kinds of resources among all oppressed and deprived class, castes, ethnic groups, religious minorities and other groups.

Programmes and initiatives for peace

• Policy advocacy on the Nepali peace process and constitution making process;
• Social mobilisation to create pressure on the law enforcement officials;
• Training, interaction and workshops for the marginalised and excluded groups.

A pressure rally for peace organised by the Human Rights Alliance

Outcomes:

1. Government has responed positively to form the Truth and Reconciliation Commissions, pass the Disappearance Bill, and provide compensation to the victims of armed conflict;
2. Government addressed the human rights violations highlighted by the National Human Rights Commission;
3. Raised awareness at the community, district, regional and national levels regarding peace, human rights and social justice;
4. Enhanced the knowledge and skills of people from marginalised and excluded groups on conflict transformation and peacebuilding;
5. The rights of the marginalised and excluded groups have been incorporated in a draft report of the thematic committees formed under the Constituent Assembly.

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Human Rights Activist (with Blue Jacket) Monitoring the Peoples' Movement announced by Seven Party Alliance in Kathmandu in April 2006

INSEC’s vision is a society where:

• people, government, law enforcing and other concerned agencies are aware of the issues and
  incidences of Human Rights violations and act accordingly;
• people, their representatives, the government, law enforcing agencies and other stakeholders are educated,
  sensitized and trained and take actions to protect and promote Human Rights in the country  as per international treaties and conventions;
• peacebuilding and democratic consolidation play an effective role; and
• the institutional competence of CBO’s and other like-minded organisations enables them to work together on human rights, peacebuilding, and policy advocacy.

Human Rights Activist and Internally Displaced Persons during rehabilitation in the interaction program at their origin on May 2005at Jumla District

Immediately after its inception, INSEC implemented programs targeting the cart pushers in the Kalimati area of Kathmandu valley. Fundamentally, those programs sought to protect their economic rights through awareness of basic human rights, advocacy and campaigning for the provision of fair wages.

Participating in a Child Competition on the Occasion of International Children Day on 20 November 2004 under the Peace Building Campaign in Bardiya

Following the restoration of democracy in 1990, the organisations work placed a greater focus on the promotion of democratic ideas. The implementation of INSEC’s programmes include campaigning, creating awareness, and conducting educational programmes in order to enable people to assert their civil and political rights, documenting of the human rights situation of Nepal and disseminating their findings in national and international arenas. Similarly, educating, monitoring, lobbying, advocating, research and giving training on issues related to human rights have been other regular undertakings of INSEC for more than 15 years.

Committed to social welfare, INSEC focuses on working with disadvantaged and marginalised sections of society. Targeted groups include agricultural workers, underprivileged women and socially discriminated people such as Dalits and children.

INSEC Chairperson Subodh Raj Pyakurel (with Cap) lighting the candle for Peace in Kathmandu jointly with other Human Rights Activist

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Much of the organisations work involves working directly with the media to achieve goals such as giving marginalised groups a greater voice or challenging human rights abuses. IHRICON also conducts grassroots, regional, national and international level research, advocacy and training programmes, and forms and strengthens networks between people and organisations who have common goals.

Programmes

• Training security forces to protect women’s and children’s rights during conflict
• Peace education training to teachers to build sustainable peace among the society
• Training of trainers to the security forces on UN Security Council Resoltution 1325 and 1820

IHRICON’s past projects have brought about changes in Kailali, Dang, Gorkha and Sindhuli. Women from the rural community have benefitted from this action as well as state policy makers, intellectuals, donor organisations, NGOs and other stakeholders. The training of trainers on UNSCR 1325 & 1820 provided IHRICON the chance to work with the personnel of the Nepal Army. This was a very valuable experience and an effective method of dealing with the issues that are found in the Army.

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Programmes

• Inclusion of minority rights for sustainable peace in Nepal: using the constitutional revision to establish and promote inclusive democracy, by aiming to improve the implementation of minority rights.
• Ensuring inclusion of minority rights in the new Nepali constitution: analysis of Nepal’s minorities’ status, and publishing of analytical papers and newsletters; formation of seven regional networks of minorities, organising awareness raising activities, putting pressure on policy makers and building consensus among minority groups.
• Communities for peace and reintegration: Analysis of needs and trends among communities, mobilised celebration of International Peace Day, signature campaign, founding of 10 community action groups and provision of small grants.
• Promoting voices of voice-less for conflict-resolution and empowerment: raising the voices of  the under-represented people with a focus on the conflict victims of Dhanusha district through radio dialogue.
• Advocacy campaign on UNSCR 1325 in Terai: educating local women and stakeholders on UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on the role of women in peacebuilding, drafting of action plans, raising awareness through the media and building capacity.
• Action for peace and reconciliation of conflict victims: addressing the issues of those killed or disappeared during the armed conflict, reconciliation and reintegration.
• Peace education and conflict resolution through socio-economic reintegration of conflict victims: technical support to the local administration to address the issues of IDPs right to return, identifying and facilitating return of displaced groups and setting up informal community based monitoring system
• Facilitating identification of Madheshi issues and national-level dialogue: district level workshops and mobilising the Madheshi society to participate in the political transition
• Communities for peace program: minimise the spread of conflict by strengthening community resilience to conflict, developing the capacity of community members on conflict resolution, mediation, negotiation and peace building, social mobilisation and offering psychological support

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HRPLSC primarily works in the mid and far western regions of Nepal, with its primary base in Rapti and a regional office in Nepalgunj. HRPLSC believes that human rights promotion and protection at the community level is not possible unless community youths are mobilised, thus HRPLSC has developed a model of working with youth clubs. Over the years, HRPLSC has implemented its human rights projects with more than 50 youth clubs and some 540 “peace awakening” radio clubs, which were formed as a result of a radio programme on peace promotion developed by HRPLSC. These clubs are working at the community level, mobilising people in order to take part in activities promoting respect for human rights and establishing a culture of peace.

Programmes

• People’s Initiative for Sustainable Peace: raising awareness for peace through training, workshop, campaign, radio programme, institutional support, capacity building
• Building Local Capacity to Promote respect for Human Rights: conflict transformation training, media mobile camps, human rights and peace education at schools, and newspaper publishing by youth groups as part of an awareness programme in cooperation with the Village Development Committee and district level actors.

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The organisation regularly engages internationally recognised legal mechanisms, and works closely with Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the Asian Federation against Involuntary Disappearance, the International Commission of Jurists and the Asian Human Rights Commission. AF was very active in ensuring the establishment of the Office of The High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in Nepal in 2005.

AF holds regular consultations with principal actors in the criminal justice system to discuss and try to resolve the inherent contradictions and conflicts of interest confronted by all concerned.  Moreover, they provide regular trainings to sensitise judges, doctors and police personnel either as preventive measures or for the purpose of effective documentation of the cases. AF seeks every possible legal avenue to help victims of human rights violations in strong recognition of the prime agency of the victims and relatives of the disappearances; the recognition of their rights and needs is put as a prime focus in its work. AF assists them in many different ways in their quest of justice and for self-empowerment.

Programmes/Initiatives

AF’s primary initiatives cover the following areas:

• Reviewing the existing legal framework in Nepal and making consistent efforts to harmonize national laws with international human rights standards
• Lobbying for the establishment of functional mechanisms to ensure conflict victims’ access to justice
• Lobbying for reform of the criminal justice system
• Promotion of juvenile justice system
• Fighting impunity firmly entrenched in Nepal’s political culture via intensive lobbying, advocacy and campaigning nationally and internationally
• Reducing practice of torture by monitoring places of detention, systematic documentation and promoting system of accountability

Key Achievements

• global recognition (inter alia by Human Rights Watch) of its work on accountability promotion and fight against impunity; AF is a key partner of the UN in Nepal as well as international NGOs
• By constantly sending cases and communications to different special procedures of the UN, AF managed to bring Nepal’s human rights agenda an international forum.
• database  of human rights violations
• support to conflict victims to get organised and take concerted measures to get justice for the injustices they have suffered
• publication of a survey report jointly with ICTJ on the basis of interviews with 811 victims
• impunity report “Waiting for Justice: Unpunished Crimes from Nepal’s Armed Conflict” in collaboration with Human Rights Watch
• AF was the first organisation to bring the first case to the UN human Rights Committee, using the treaty obligation of Nepal

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Despite the efforts of local people, life is still dominated by an overall lack of even basic needs: no roads, no transportation, no new sources of income, no schools, and not even drinking water. Because many people live out of the lack of access for vehicles, many people are forced to hike up to two days for services and collect drinking water and fire wood by foot, having to cover several kilometres a day. Schools in particular are suffering severely under these conditions: Mud floors, lacking windows, blackboards, shabby furniture and hair-raising hygienic conditions are common. General healthcare is as problematic, due to a the lack of a hospital, which is substituted for by only few health centres run by mostly unqualified staff, chronically underequipped, and far from accessible.

Amidst this chaos, families as the nuclear cell of society are under constant threat. A visit to one of the local families reveals the widening gaps: The father suffers from tuberculosis, has to walk a whole day and travel by bus another one to get to the only TB-hospital in Nepal, while his son is not able to help him since he moved to Saudi Arabia as a labourer. This fate is typical for young people in the rural areas, most of whom leave the country and take on low-paid jobs in India or the Middle East, seeing no future for themselves in Nepal. There is now a widespread fear of society losing a whole generation of young people. On the other hand, and in defiance of reality, political parties – and most of all the CPN-M – keep trying to raise expectations about the future.

Socially, the district is caught up in both unresolved issues and a longstanding culture of violence which evolved from the years of internal armed conflict. The former is manifest in widespread gender- and caste discrimination, with low caste people being banned from using the same wells as higher class members. But even more obvious are the deep wounds left by the war, suddenly erupting as violent clashes among villagers, even over seemingly trivial issues.

However, there is a thin ray of hope for better life in the villages. Since the signing of the peace agreement, a number of dedicated civil society- and community based organisations has been working on mitigating the climate of despair and violence. Their efforts are channelled through discussion and interaction programmes, awareness campaigns, workshops and trainings for villagers on peace, non-violence, dialogue, facilitation, mediation and negotiation, as well as the essential task of bridging the gap between state authorities and conflict victims. In addition, these activists are working on identifying the primary victims of the decade-long violent struggles and their actual needs for a return to a normal life.

In accordance with this “movement”, the people of Belghari Village Development Committee (VDC) took part in a one-day peace and human rights workshop, peacefully solving a Community Based Organsation (CBO) conflict concerning a financial transparency issue,, while workshop participants are now involved in creating awareness for issues of conflict and peace among their neighbours and family members.

In a similar manner, school teachers in Sindhuli district were provided with training on conflict, peace and human rights. As a result, 29 teachers have been actively solving problems and calling people’s attention to peace and human rights in their respected areas. In particular, they have been addressing the issue of caste discrimination, irrigation and pressing local issues.

These teachers were then enabled to train a number of students on human rights and peaceful methods of conflict resolution like mediation and negation, who were in turn able to reach out to their friends, to villagers and family members.

Although evidence of the peace activities’ anticipated effects is still rare, it is clearly noticeable that a majority of the villagers have rejected violence as a means for resolving disputes and conflicts. Moreover, people have started talking about peace and human rights – It seems like the long established culture of violence is gradually and slowly replaced by an emerging culture of peace, which, above all, calls for a sustainable and long term engagement.

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