Rights watchdog to monitor children use in CA polls

LALITPUR: The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) are to be strict not to allow the use of children in election publicity of political parties in course of upcoming election to the Constitution Assembly (CA).

Acting Secretary of NHRC, Bed Prasad Bhattarai, told that they will not allow the use of children this time as children were used even by hampering their studies in previous election.

Bhattarai said that they have already suggested the political parties not to use children in any activities related to election like rallies, meetings and publicity, among others, and added that monitoring would be carried out strictly for its implementation.

Stating that Nepal had agreed and ratified the International Child Rights Convention-1989 and the government has also approved the Convention, UNICEF Nepal representative Hanaa Singer, has expressed concern that the use of children below 18 years is not allowed in political activities.

Human Rights Protection Officer, Yam Bahadur Dura, said that they have urged the political parties not to use children in election and added that not only the Child Rights Convention, but ‘Child Rights Act—2049 BS’ and ‘Child Rights Regulations-2051 BS’ of Nepal have also prohibited the use of children.

Stating that schools have been already declared as ‘Zone of Peace’, the NHRC and UNICEF urged the political parties not to organise political programmes in school areas.

Bhattarai said that they drew the attention this time with an objective of stopping misuse of children and for running the teaching -learning activities peacefully.