Milestone In Nepal-UN Cooperation

The high profile visit to Nepal by the United Nations’ Secretary General Antonio Guterres is a well-deserved opportunity for Nepal to bring longstanding issues of concern to global spotlight. This visit has symbolised the world body’s appreciation for Nepal’s constructive engagement in a number of UN-sponsored initiatives designed to maintain world peace, mitigate conflicts, pursuing development goals and addressing climate emergencies.

Beginning with a residential office of Food and Agricultural Organisation 70 years ago, the UN has become one of the largest development partners of Nepal. Nepal sincerely adheres to the Charter of the United Nations and recognises it as a bulwark of global peace and a defender of sovereignty and independence of weaker nations. The current visit of the UN Secretary General, therefore, constitutes a new milestone of continued friendly engagements and collaboration between Nepal and the United Nations.

Delicate balance

This visit of the head of the world organisation has taken place in a complex geopolitical context when dark clouds of war hover over the sky of Eastern Europe and West Asia, while major regional and global powers are contending for economic supremacy and strategic positioning. Nepal has a formidable challenge in navigating its way to prosperity and stability by striking a delicate balance between their conflicting interests and ambitions. 

Aware as it is of the prevailing geo-political milieu, Nepal has tried its best to exercise its diplomatic and political acumen to mobilise both bilateral and multilateral development partners, including the United Nations. The just concluded official visit of the UN Secretary General is an opportunity for Nepal to acquaint the world community with various complex paradoxes which have both regional and global ramifications.

As is well known, the UN has been playing a pioneering role in promoting Nepal’s social and economic development helping it to contribute to attaining the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG).The contribution of UN-sponsored programmes in the field of economy, education, health, democracy and good governance has brought perceptible change in the broader landscape of the Nepali society. The latest visit of Nepal by the UN Secretary General may be taken as yet another occasion to showcase Nepal’s potentials and its contributions, though modest, to strengthening the UN system.

One of the major issues which Nepal faces today is the impact of climate change. As a country nurtured by the hydrological cycle sustained by the interaction between the Bay of Bengal and the snow covered Himalayan Mountains, Nepal has come under unprecedented impact of changing weather patterns.  The most severe impact of the climate change is seen more vividly on the Himalayan mountain ranges which are rapidly losing snow mass because of the phenomenon of global warming though Nepal has very little role in carbon emission. 

The UN Secretary General saw through his own eyes the severe impact of climate change on agriculture, availability of drinking water and the vulnerability of people to disasters. “Stop this madness” was the warning shot he fired at the carbon emitting multinational industries after seeing the massive scale of snow erosion in the Himalayan Mountains. The Secretary General also acquainted himself with the process of migration induced by adverse climate conditions compelling people in mountain settlements to translocate themselves to more stable locations making demographic distribution more chaotic and unmanageable. 

For some years, Nepal is vexed with a concern about managing a smooth transition in the wake of its impending upgradation from the status of the least developed country. The visit of Secretary General to Nepal has helped in eliciting commitment of cooperation from the UN agencies as and when it weans itself away from the international support system to embark on an independent course of development. In the future, more proactive efforts and outreach will be necessary for coping with the challenges we may face in pursuing the path of sustainable development.

Nepal’s international image and standing is closely associated with the role it is playing in the field of peace keeping operating in various parts of the world. It is one of the major contributors to UN peace forces being mobilised at various conflict hotspots of the world. The UN Secretary General has been highly appreciative of Nepali peace keepers and has taken cognizance of Nepal’s participation and partnership in a number of multilateral forums. In the days to come, Nepal Government would do well to conscientiously negotiate with the UN for augmenting Nepali peace keepers’ perks and privileges. 

Last but not least, the urgent and important priority of the UN Secretary General’s visit to Nepal was to help expedite the process of transitional justice by encouraging the stakeholders towards consensus.  There are 63,718 cases registered at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) in addition to another 288 cases of disappearance registered at the Commission for the Investigation of Enforced Disappeared Persons (CIEPD). This issue of TRC is complicated and demands conscientious efforts and honest initiatives from the major stakeholders of the conflict.

TRC issues

The concern of the world body about the prolonged stalemate on settling TRC issues is valid. But the fact is that Nepal’s peace process is unique and possesses conspicuous homegrown features in which principal domestic actors have insisted to play a major role in the resolution of conflict era cases. The mediation and oversight of international institutions can definitely play facilitatory role but the main premise of the settlement should be to meet the international human rights standards, giving justice to victims and holding perpetrators of heinous crimes accountable irrespective of their influence and position in power hierarchy.

Since the two major conflict era stakeholders are in power, addressing the TRC issue should not be that complex and challenging provided the modality of resolution upholds the perspective of the victims and the inputs and opinions of concerned stakeholders are respected. If this happens, a painful chapter of Nepal’s political history will be closed, setting a shining example of a peace process tailored to national context.

(Dr.Bharadwaj is former chairperson of the Gorkhapatra Corporation and former ambassador of Qatar.)