Kathmandu School Of Law (KSL)
in co-operation with Center for Legal Research and Resource Development (CeLRRd)

KSL announces admission open in its one year interdisciplinary  M.A.  in Human Rights and Conflict and International Humanitarian Law. Candidate holding Masters Degree in any discipline is eligible to apply for the course. For more detail visit <<http://ksl.edu.np/program_ma.asp>>

News

Official Launching of the Clinical Legal Education Programme

Mr. Douglas Bereuter, President and Chief Executive Officer of The Asia Foundation officially launched the 'Clinical Legal Education Programme' (CLEP) of KSL on 19th April 2008. The Asia Foundation has supported certain components of CLEP. They are: i. Internship at Supreme Court; ii. Legal aid for women, marginalized and victims; and iii. Child rights advocacy and legal aid. Support of TAF broadly aims to improve administration of justice in the courts, and to increase access to justice for society's most disadvantaged groups by expanding public defense systems and institutionalising legal aid. It also aims at strengthening free legal aid of the school and providing opportunity for students to learn the realities of actual legal practice.

Guests after launching the CLEP

Top

Dr. Moshe Halbertal, Professor of Law and Jews Philosophy, Hebrew University, Israel addressed the interaction programme on ‘Religious Tolerance: its dimensions and linkage with political context’ at KSL on 22 April 2008. KSL Law Students Society organized the programme in collaboration with Embassy of Israel. Law students and teaching faculty participated in the interaction.  

Welcoming Prof. Halbertal and the participants, Dr. Yubaraj Sangroula briefly highlighted on the school’s initiatives on the issues of national politics and religion. He talked about the influence of hindu religion in the history of Nepal. Before 14^th Century Nepal had no official religion. Lichhavis were the first to bring hindu orthodox in Nepal that introduced the caste system. The same was institutionalized in Malla regime when the first Nepalese legislature was formed and followed in later practice. Nepal was until recently a Hindu Kingdom. This practice of hindu fundamentalism not only negated others’ religion and culture, 70% people were excluded from politico religious mainstream, he mentioned. He also accentuated on the fact that religion is an individual issue and it should not be taken as the religion of the state. State should be secular in such issues.  

Prof. Halbertal started with the brief highlights of religious political situation of Israel. According to him, in Israel, originally, there used to be the political conflict between Israel and other countries which later transformed into the conflict between Judaism and Islamic.

He highlighted on the four concepts of tolerance or ways of overcoming fundamentalism: i. tolerance society (that advocates the culture of tolerating others' religion and no coercion to follow any religion); ii. open society (free to choose any religion if desired); iii. pluralistic society (respecting others' religion); iv. multicultural society (interacting and internalizing others' religion and values). He said the state should head towards any of these societies in order to overcome fundamentalism.   

The floor was opened for discussion. Prof. Halbertal addressed queries and issues raised by the participants. The interaction related several issues of conflict of Israel with armed conflict of Nepal.

Prof. Halbertal receiving token of memory from Dr. Sangroula

Top

KSL Law Students Society organized a talk programme on 'How law can support development' on 28th April 2008. Mr. Mark S. Ward, Senior Deputy Assistant Administrator for Asia, USAID addressed the programme. Mr. Ward owes principal responsibility for the aid programmes in South, Central and East Asia.  

Dr. Yubaraj Sangroula welcomed the guests. He briefly highlighted the problems of legal education in Nepal and naive understanding of people about role of law in sustaining development. Mentioning about KSL's initiatives to advance the legal education with research oriented community based learning programmes, he also touched upon students' involvement in CA advocacy to the marginalized and endangered community.  He appreciated support of USAID in strengthening library of the school and urged donor agencies to realize the potentiality of academic institutions in making significant contribution to the society. He viewed there is a culture of neglecting academic institutions among government, non governmental organizations as well as donor agencies to engage students and teachers in socio economic transformation.  

Speaking at the program Mr. Ward highlighted on the contribution of the legal education in field of rule of law, and access to justice. Giving example of Musarraff’s act to encroach upon the judiciary of Pakistan he added that rule of law is the biggest ingredient to tackle with the autocratic system of government. In democracy, voice of people should be respected and also check and balance mechanism should be there. Reiterating the people’s movement against Musaraff’s decision he emphasized on the strength people actually hold.

For him access to justice is significant aspect of rule of law which has nexus with notion of legal aid. Here the lawyers can play significant role to change the traditional systems and practices of the society such as practice of tribal lords in Pakistan. He accentuated on the need of balance between respecting traditional values and practice and modern system of governance so as to invite foreign investment in this era of globalization. He also focused on the need of reformation in Nepalese laws to augment foreign investment. More, he focused on eliminating corruption from legal profession and judiciary to ensure fair justice and rule of law. He appealed young lawyers to maintain integrity of their profession by denying 'giving and taking of bribe'.

Mr. Ward addressing the programme

Top

Mr. Bishma Prasad Sangroula, Teaching Faculty of KSL successfully participated in the 12th South Asian Teaching Sessions on IHL held from 16 to 23 of April 2008 in Hyderabad, India. The programme was organized jointly by ICRC and NALSAR University, Hyderabad.  

Top

Feature Article

Constitution must be Able to Guarantee Basic Liberties Uninfringeable in Any Circumstance

A society without basic liberties is nothing but a slaves’ society. But the whole chunk of human civilization has unfolded out of conscious struggle for freedoms, and all conditions in political society that thrashed basic liberties are defeated by incessant inspiration of civil society for greater and enriched freedoms. The scheme and design by any individual or institution are thus bound to be ultimately crumbled down; they are never sustainable. No society or nation can survive without a vibrant and freed body of civilians. As opposed to some pessimistic cries, Nepal’s future is bright and awesomely potential of emerging as a matured and cultured nation state provided that some formidable problems are properly addressed.

An in-depth and critical analysis of the past political affairs unfolds that the Nepalese society is passing through a bitter struggle between regressive and progressive forces, though the struggle is largely clandestine. This struggle has mainly centered on ‘ill motif’ of conventional feudal force that intends to continue being in power as antithesis to basic liberties. For the last three years, this struggle has largely surfaced due to massive growth of consciousness of the civil society to basic liberties. This is what an interesting development mounting in the political scenario of the Nepalese society; it is no longer feasible to rule the Nepalese society by a power-block, group or institution with the help of a clandestine power management system. Unlike during the Panchayati regime, in the post 1990 movement era every power block is exposed to the eyes of the Nepalese people. If one looks from this perspective, last five years were crucial in the history of the Nepalese politics in the sense that the clandestine power centered politics came to its zenith and started spilling over. The split of the CPN (UML) was a beginning of the exposure of the clandestine power center, which survives only with the strength of conspiracy and unlimited political gimmicks. The split of the Nepali Congress was growth to maturity, and the subsequent events are spill-over. The biggest failure in this unfolding drama on the part of the democratic political forces was that they could not smell of the foul they were being instigated to play.

The present upsurge of the people marks their genuine inspiration for consolidation of the basic liberties. But it does not mean that the threat or risk of it being crushed by the clandestine power centered political gimmick is over. Coming to its zenith of such gimmick does not mean that it has been powerless, or sustained its biting tooth have been broken. The center is as powerful as it used to be in the past. The only change in its dimension is that it has been overtly exposed at present, whereas it was fully covert till recent past. The gain or lose of the civil society to its mission of achieving basic liberties will thus depend on its clarity of political, economical and social agenda of development. Liberties of people do not stand in vacuum.   

If one analyzes the dynamics of Nepalese history of struggle for freedoms, one can obviously see that it has, as an imbibed character, marked exclusively by political priorities. Socio-economic needs and priorities for the development have consistently been left out. As a result, the economically and socially marginalized sections of the population could not enjoy opportunities for equity, and consequently the clandestine power center could play a plot against democratic forces. In such a state, the larger part of population is easily deluded by the regressive force as it survives on failures of others only. Regression is destructive and devoid of creativity. Obviously, its agenda of winning over the power is solely dependent on the failure of the progressive forces on their agenda. The present government, for instance, took over the power in the pretext of failure of the political parties offer a system of good governance. But it never had a creative agenda of good governance; to grab the governmental power was the only agenda.

Basic liberties are greater need of economically and socially marginalized groups, and of course any political struggle must make these issues as frontline agenda to defeat the clandestine power centered block. The present movement needs to review its position from this prospect. Nepal is currently facing danger of authoritarianism from both the left and right extremism. In this situation the defeat of one may unscrupulously assist the other in gaining power. This on what the American policy to Nepal has been becoming functional. In this situation, the enhancement of the functionality of the central democratic forces is the only right strategy for preserving the realm of basic liberties, and for this the central democratic forces must be able to draw the socially and economically marginalized sections to its fold. Priorities for the socio-economic freedoms and development should therefore be the focused agenda of the struggle for political basic liberties. In this context, the political parties fighting for the democracy should be conscious of their role to massive reforms in the governance system, and the agenda of the movement should be accordingly designed. The success of the ongoing movement for basic liberties is thus dependent on it capability of including socio-economic freedoms and development as priority agenda of the struggle. Its failure to do so may divert the larger part of the population towards leftist extremism, and eventually will provide a basis for continuity of the rights’ control over the State’ power.

In this context, the ongoing movement for democracy must be founded on a charter between the people and political parties. It cannot be a sole instrument of political parties gaining the power over the government with status quo in political dynamics. Restoration of liberal democracy is the agenda of the political parties, whereas the people’ agenda is beyond it; they want an inclusive democracy in terms of participation in political process as well as scoio-econmic development. The people’ movement can be enhanced and consolidated by acceptance by the political parties of the people’s agenda of inclusive democracy. This is where the external powers like India, USA, UK and China can play roles. Their policies and outlooks to present crisis of Nepal should be necessarily guided for the benefit of the general population. Creation or destruction of any polarization for vested interest should find a place, which may drag Nepal to a catastrophe. Especially, US government’s cautious support to the present movement may help to legitimize the brutal suppression of the people, and it may contribute to the upsurge of economically and socially deprived or disenfranchised population to the left extremism. It is necessary to build a faith and trust of the people on the capability of the democratic parties to rescue the country from crisis. This faith of people on democratic forces will isolate unpopular forces from people. As matter of fact, the popular movement to the inclusive democratic system is the only way out of the present crisis.

The present trend of suppression, however, and less visible concern of the international community towards what happening in Nepal are unusual. These trends show that the government is still confident of its capability of quelling the movement with the help of massive use of force. On the other hand, international community is skeptical to extend its genuine support to the democratic forces, and this may be due to ‘stereotyped’ belief that the fall down of the present government might add the strength to the Maoist. This doctrine may have been founded on a sweet logic but on ‘reality’. The Nepalese people are keen to restoration of democracy and have abundantly proved that their choice is no kind authoritarian regime, but the democratic government. The international community can constructively assist Nepal to rescue from the present crisis by extending its support to the democratic aspiration of the people and their capability of their representative parties. By ignoring political parties there can neither be the solution to the Maoist insurgency nor development of the country.

With the present political development in Nepal, one can say that the country has been come to a real cross of crisis. Successful management of the aspiration of the people scattered on every streets and corners of the country today will give a lasting transformation of the present crisis, and failure to an uncertainty of future. The failure of the present movement will throw the country a lasting bloodshed. The present trend of the government to oppress unarmed citizens on the streets compels one to think that it lacks a political vision address the crisis. There is a strong anti-democratic group in the government, which is persistently and adamantly trying to prevail over the people. The terror has been created among the people, everyday it is dragging more people in the streets. The mass is still peaceful on the streets, and has not poured on the inner city in Kathmandu for frenzy and destruction. However, everything naturally has limitation. The anger being generated by indiscriminate bullets and batons might trigger the frenzy, and may invite a catastrophe. It is therefore in nobody’s interest to wait and pass on the time without proper transformation of the crisis. The international community can play a crucial role, by refraining at lest from meddling things, if it does prefer to avoid active engagement in support of the democracy.

Top

Kathmandu School of Law          / Telephone : 977-01-634455/6634663, 2042268
Dadhikot, Bhaktapur                   /   Fax           : 977-01-634801
Kathmandu, Nepal                     /   E-mail       : info@ksl.edu.np        Web   :  www.ksl.edu.np