Lal Bahadur
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Press Freedom in Nepal - 2008/04/23 17:55
On the 14th April 2008 the UNHCR Nepal representative Daisy Dell sent a letter to Human Rights Without Frontiers, Nepal (HRWF) expressing her concern at an article in the Kathmandu Post on the 2nd April 2008 titled ‘Reform to Inform Refugees written by HRWF intern, Thomas Hardaker. The UNHCR claimed that information and statements contained in the article where inaccurate and further requested that before HRWF publish articles relating to the Bhutanese refugees, it must seek verification of the facts from the UNHCR. As all the information in the article is indeed accurate and evidenced, HRWF feel that the UNHCR is attempting to curtail its fundamental rights to freedom of expression and opinion guaranteed under article 19 UDHR 1948 by restricting the verification of facts to those which they acknowledge. Which most importantly did not include the realities of hut to hut resettlement campaigning.
The UNHCR have yet to publicly challenge the viewpoints of the author, instead they have opted to privately appeal to HRWF’s agreement of their proposed terms. This kind of behavior is not expected from a UN agency that has the welfare of the refugees as a principal motivation. It is kindly urged that UNHCR respects the rights to freedom of expression and opinion of all those working to help Bhutanese refugees, in line with their legal obligations.
Please visit http://www.apfanews.com/news/?id=393330 to find more information in this regards.
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